Song reviews

“Black Magic” is kind of old fashioned in its approach but that is not to the song’s disadvantage as Luna Green’s affected vocals are never less than appealing and the song is, when all is said and done, nothing less than a pop song of the old school.

Girlish vocals reinforce the innocent vibe that powers “Let Us Stay in the Light” and allows it to float like a fluffy cloud over the eighties style locked to the loop backing track. This is the kind of song that they use as the soundtrack to a montage in an American television drama.

Middle of the road seems to be the course that Freddy and The Medicines are steering with “Tides” being the kind of earnest duet that might best be used to sell life insurance or pension plans. The song is a professional piece of work in other words and will undoubtedly make more money than anything else that I have heard this week.

I don’t know what I did to deserve this honour but here we are and “Bigger Than Ron Jeremy” is the work of – apparently anyway – a former porn star from the seventies. Bruce Thunderbollocks is indeed the kind of name that you would expect a porn star of the seventies to use should he ever release an old style mirror ball funk workout that features the kind of lyrical bravado that you don’t see outside of gangsta these days. The song therefore does not disappoint on that level and it might just be the best song of the week. Or not. Probably not.

Neatly reverential to the halcyon days of synth-pop, Apache Darling set the sequencer to pulsate the rhythm of “More Than Me” to the beat of complexity and thus indicate that they have actually learned something from those that have gone before them. The passionate female vocals sit sometimes sit awkwardly on top of the electronics but all is saved by a crowd pleasing chorus.

Despite being somewhat forced and awkward, “Dover” shows that Finnish band Junes Garden can do melodrama in that meaningful mainstream rock ballad style that still occasionally troubles the charts even if the song itself never really gets up to speed.

Oh, you can never have too much Americana. Actually you can but at least Swedish band Crowpush leave the oft visited dustbowl behind in favour of a walk in the shadows of a genre renowned for not having any. “Weak As Water” is therefore unexpectedly high on atmosphere and all the better for that.

Nicely melodic if still obviously in awe of their American indie influences, Australian band Tesla Coil move smoothly through “Confines” with the laconicism evident in the vocals neatly underpinning the smarter than average lyrics. I’d want to hear more from this band before actually getting enthusiastic but the markers for success are there.

What is happening here? I’ll tell you. Miss Kristin is following her own musical path with a diligence rarely found today. If this were 1967, her song “Circles Around The Sun” would be filed under “tune in, drop out” but today it will no doubt just set off a frenzy of violence against cute bunny rabbits.

Neat and earnest if anything, Love For Zero make a solid showing with “Dust” even if the synth pop atmospherics can’t quite compensate for the awkwardness in the lyrics and the general lack of sparkle.

If you are going to do folk music then you had better avoid the trap of retelling the past again and again and again. Most don’t bother but Jamie Flett avoids said trap with some style and even takes “Monkeys” off for a psych pop ramble before reconnecting the song with its elemental inspirations. It’s a metaphysical redemption song and you don’t get too many of those these days.

“Razorheart” shows that Swedish band Violet Days can do anything a mainstream American pop band can do with Lina Hansson’s voice sitting neatly on top of this factory produced musical confection. You are pretty much guaranteed to hear this song on the radio.