Song reviews

“We Are Here” is the kind of song that you might expect of a singer songwriter wishing to express his sensitivity. Social isolation and group hugs feature in the lyrics yet neither song nor singer actually manage to convince.

Endearing yet clearly cool as an autumn breeze, Alma’s voice has that kind of fragility and casual timing that bears comparison with Randy Crawford and, with “Honey”, she successfully crosses the lyrical boundary between singer-songwriter and supper club jazz.

Metro City Riot show plenty of sincerity and succeed in making “Lost In Love” an accurate recreation of those eighties electro pop days when mascara wasn’t just for women and songs actually mattered.

Whilst “Asleep” suggests Nashville is her chosen destination, Alana’s voice possesses more than enough power to earn her a seat on the rock train should she choose to follow that track instead. I would if I had her voice.

An Australian singer with an apparent love for the old school British soul style, Jeniqua makes a convincing case for nostalgia with her song “U Got It Goin’ On”. This is a nice song nicely sung that might just have dance floor appeal too.

Despite being Swedish and of today, Le Maine seem more of the time of stadium rock with “Daughter of A King” providing plenty of evidence that the dramatic ballad is alive and well. The female vocal gives the song all the credibility it needs.

Pleasingly complex math rock with art house pretensions is what you get from Brooklyn’s Sister Helen and their song “Try and Try Again” stumbles, fumbles and grumbles yet still makes it to the finishing line with its musical head held high. That’s plenty good enough for me.

Although I doubt that anyone could, or would, rotate ambiguously to the robotic rhythms of “Throwing Stones”, Empathy Test manage to hold court on the midnight dance floor whilst sounding considerably more human than their relentlessly downbeat synth pop motivations should allow.

So desperately retro that it must surely be a pastiche, “A/E” highlights the ability of Banana Beach – they’re Swedish, by the way – to recreate the locked to the loop synth pop sound of the eighties. The past is the new present once again, it would seem.

Jamie Flett turns up both the melancholy and the reverb and takes “Gold Coins III” on a lyrically oblique journey into the mists of lost opportunity. A mature song even if it is let down somewhat by the imprecision of the backing musicians.

Moody and near theatrical in its execution, “I Feel Fine” gives Dominic Scott the opportunity to do a more than worthy impersonation of Chris Isaak whilst allowing the song to build up a very respectable head of steam on its way to Showtune Station. Beard scratching good.

The lightweight end of the indie pop musical spectrum has never been afraid of the sun and Lunchbox bask in the warmth of the California sunshine with “Give A Little Love” reminding these ears of no less than the pop perfection of early period Marshall Crenshaw. All that lo-fi candy floss may well rot your teeth but their emotional attachment to melody is to be commended.