Song reviews

“Fighting A Battle When You’re Lost” is a competent if unexciting folk flavoured song that scores a couple of points for the earnest performance by Shaun Tutt and for some decent lyrics. On the debit side, the song does sound exactly like a song from any other better than average singer songwriter. Nice enough but unlikely to stand out from the crowd,

The mid paced “Everyone Expected Her to Dance” is unexpectedly mainstream and commercial for a Glasgow singer songwriter with Liam Tennant pulling at all the right heart strings in his search for success. The sound quality made my ears bleed but a re-recording with a suitably sweeping string arrangement could do some business.

Convincing post punk with a past midnight too cool for school groove, Birmingham band Bombers throw their retro guitar powered edginess into “Forecast”. If this were 1979, record companies would be camped outside their door. Unfortunately it’s not so Bombers will most likely be blessed with only critical approval.

“In The Wake” is as hot, hard and heavy as you would expect of a band on the cusp of hard rock and metal but SilenceThe Machine don’t actually deliver anything that you haven’t heard many times before. Too safe for success? Probably.

“Invent The Future” bodes well for Irish band Castlestreet. Although the song has something of a slow start, it takes off towards the folk rock horizon at the two minute mark with some vigour. Festival friendly without a doubt.

With a sweet and soulful voice, Ozara Odé is nothing if not easy on the ear. “Higher Plain” shows her to be a singer of class and distinction who can bring that seventies’ downbeat funk feel to all that she does. Pretty much guaranteed to put you in a mellow mood, (especially if you chop the last two minutes off this song).

Minimalist electronica that uses repetition and a fluttering trip out beat makes “And Now I’m Ready To Go” sound much like any other example of the laptop and sample genre except for the oddball, over emoted vocals. The song does not really have anywhere to go but that is probably the point.

“Punchbag” is an endearingly frenetic slice of indie rock from Glasgow’s The Beautiful Game. It might be low on surprises but you can’t argue with the band’s spirited performance.

Going larger than a one man rock ‘n’ roll band should is Abstract Artimus and his song “Snakes” throws in a bit of Southern fried attitude to lift the song out of the bedroom riffing zone. As I am overly fond of saying, this song should go well with beer.

Ha, someone is having a laugh here!  “Don’t Rub It In” starts off with maximum compression and then The QMan gets everything wrong with the short but tragic guitar solo being the icing on the crumbling cake before the song – very quickly – falls off the cliff and drowns in the sea of mistakes.

Lo-fi but honest through and through, Krestovsky – our favourite probation officer, by the way – brings his trademark poetic melancholy to bear on his song “Zoo”. There’s not much more than keyboards and his voice here but sometimes, as is the case here, that is more than enough to get the job done.

Eoghan O'Hagan returns to things simple and melodic with “Lost” and does so with some style. It’s all very minimalist with plenty of space weaved in for those deep and dark emotions to eventually make their way to the surface before taking an admittedly long walk down the street.