Song reviews

Sounding like a slowed down escapee from the dancefloor, Kami-O takes the minimalist approach to his ambient composition “Drift”. Not a lot actually happens but that is surely true of any club when the doors are closed.

“Black Tie” is the kind of song that might just give mid paced melodrama a good name with Brendan Dafters, front man of Glasgow’s very own Nieves, milking his time in the spotlight for all it is worth. If a bit of radio airplay is forthcoming, this could become a housewives’ favourite.

Those fertile fields of Scandinavian electro pop have produced yet another crop. Anwai’s rather fey “Move Along” sounds like a looped and sequenced take on the Snow Patrol sound but, nonetheless, the song remains easy on the ear.

Jade The Moon clearly live on the dark side of the electro pop moon with their song “5 6 7 8” tripping out on a music box melody, looped vocals driven by isolation and dystopian doom. Naturally, a song like this does not end. It just stops. Just like the world will one day.

Somebody has got the recipe book out for dark electro pop soup with GØSPEL’s “Ain’t Gonna Let You In” sequencing its way through Sakamoto and the special seasoning being Beth Anderton-Allen’s laconic yet still passionate voice.

There is always room in my iPod for some more slick electro pop from Scandinavia and Linnea Södahl provides just that with her song “Two Is An Army”. Her voice has an appealing effervescence that balances out the rather bleak concept behind the lyrics with the resulting musical concoction tempting me towards a comparison with Fallulah.

Glasgow’s own Superdiva Ashley Collins abandons the dance floor for the big ballad with “Falling” being so dramatically downbeat that some might even see the song as contrived. However, Ms. Collins clearly has the voice to carry such a song off and that is what she duly does.

Robust and as rifftastic as usual, Well Hung Heart rev up their musical V8 and turn “Throw It All Away” into a contender for the theme song to a rock radio revival. This may be their most mainstream song yet but Well Hung Heart still have their foot well and truly on the accelerator.

As bright and breezy as you like, Australia’s Mia Milan easily evokes the perfectly formed pop music of the Brill Building with “I Won’t Cry”. It’s a singalong summer song, without a doubt.

Danny Darko does not stray far from his dance floor roots with “My Favourite” sounding more like a remix of an original than an actual original song and it is Jova Radevska’s girlish, yet worldly, voice that actually gives the song its sonic appeal

You can’t keep a good funk rock band down and London’s Palumbo and the Funk duly get down on it with “Get It Right”. The playing is in the groove, right enough, but the song needs a more distinctive lead voice if it is ever to escape the wedding reception dance floor.

A middle of the road pop song, “Little Fun” shows that Theo Altieri lacks neither energy nor clean living charm and I wouldn’t be surprised if the song found a home on what is left of daytime radio.