Song reviews

Pleasingly mature, melodic and redolent of the days when songs actually mattered, “Conquer The World” shows that all you need is a piano, a voice and talent. Alexis has these three things. Job done, as they say.

Balancing the icy precision of the insistently robotic backing track with her deep and intense vocals, Allyson Ezell makes the street and the art house as one with her song “Landmine”. Music for the educated.

It is easy to categorise Twin Lakes as a wholesome and worthy band – for they are – but “Wolf Hall” suggests that they have dramatic motivations that will allow them to scale up and escape the size limitations inherent to indie pop. They are a band that deserves to go large.

Downright old school in its funkiness, New York’s 12KO have the horns and full on female vocals to make you wish it was 1975 again with “Left, Right Left” being all the proof that you need that soul is where it is at. That’s true now, then and forever.

So shiny and clean that they could only be from somewhere in Scandinavia, Timshel nevertheless sound like the kind of American indie pop band that should have a cult following and “Halfway To Anywhere”, unsurprisingly, makes for the perfect soundtrack to brightly coloured knitwear.

Mixing robotic indifference with pan European musical influences, Jibóia casts the kind of spell with “Treta Yuga” that makes you question whether your enjoyment of psychedelic substances has reached saturation point but it matters not for the female vocals had you from the start anyway. Hypnotic.

With the confidence to once more walk the well-worn path from Scotland to the land of downbeat Americana, Fife’s Milton Star use “Salvation” as their off peak ticket to musical redemption. I’m sure the Fates will smile upon them but the rest is destiny.

Ernie Jackson has perfected his manufactured sound with “Stars Fall Down” and undoubtedly what is left of mainstream radio will joyously lap this song up before delivering it on to the hairdressers of the world. In other words, it’s pop music as they used to make it.

Pretty much what you would expect of a band with ska on their mind and in their hearts, King Porter Stomp run “Warning” straight down the middle of the road fuelled by righteous reverence. The political rap is commendable but spirit ultimately triumphs over poetry.

Not quite electro pop but on the same late night bus, Le Very give us enough evidence of artistic pretension in “Playground” to justify the use of obsession as both lyrical motivation and stylistic inspiration.

Lightweight, fey and folk flavoured, “Simon” shows that Firewoodisland have what it takes to storm the stage of any family friendly festival that you might attend of a summer. Fans of bands like the Fleet Foxes should take note of these new kids on the block.

Should you ever need proof that there is something, or someone, in Scotland that a greedy multinational record company would want to exploit then look no further than Sophie Rogers. Her song, “Devils in the Details”, is comfortably mainstream in aspiration yet, in its emotional subtext, bears comparison with the music of our beloved Jill Jackson. That works for me.