Song reviews

They would have to be French. What other explanation could there be for successfully adding vintage style to hip hop without actually appearing contrived? “Somehow” shows that Smokey Joe and The Kid know that being lyrically street wise doesn’t necessarily stop you from being high on life.

Nicely retro in outlook, as any good dance song seems to be these days, London’s I Am Harlequin puts her electro heart into “Dance With Anyone” just like Whitney Houston would have done back in the day and, if I had a handbag, my feet would be shuffling round it right now. Whatever happened to Stacey Q anyway?

If your dose of Prozac for the day has kicked in then “Simply Depressed” will be just another example of Scottish bedsit electronica but, if your needle is still clean, then this transfusion of a Tina Turner song into the veins of The Ladywell Lout will likely overwhelm you with its downbeat, near Wagnerian, introspection. It’s a West Lothian thing, without a doubt.

“Let It Be Love” is a convincing example of a song in the urban pop style by former Pussycat Doll Jessica Sutta and, while the generic production attempts to sink the song into the mud of mediocrity, Ms. Sutta instead throws her heart into her performance and manages to save the day.

Although categorised as a Swedish Americana band, “Mud” makes The Wife seem more of an alt-rock band with a fondness for Ry Cooder style musical reinvention and Natalie Johansson’s world weary voice makes a compelling case for giving them closer examination.

Convincingly doing the white boy funk thing, Misun put their song “Justice” on the retro groove train and take it to the end of the line. Robust female vocals and a guitarist with a loop fixation keep the song right on track.

Although they would appear to be too young to understand irony, Virgin Suicide play that very card as they revisit the sound of Suede with such thorough reverence that “Virgin Suicide” (the song) becomes no less than perfect pop revisionism.

“Safe To Surface” seems initially no more than the work of yet another Chicago rock band suffering flashbacks to a past time. However, give Brontosaurus some of your time and you will hear a band unafraid of the subtleties and complexities required to make a song memorable.

Although inoffensive almost to the point of parody, “Street Lights” does highlight that Sweden’s Mon Sai have the ability to marry melody to harmony in the best indie pop tradition. There are, however, hints in there to suggest that a sense of adventure will develop once their confidence grows.

A neat, if unadventurous, song, “Podesta” shows that California trio Peptalk could easily become the soundtrack to your next latté with the oriental style percussion lifting the song above competing laptop electronica.

You can hear the hard work that has gone into “Phonecalls in the Bath” with none of that one tempo and three chords approach that curses so many Glasgow bands. Instead, we get a restrained start, a spirited middle and an elegant coda to close this glorious song off. May we be blessed with more music from this connoisseur’s choice of a band.

Some band exude obscurity so, other than they are from Chicago, there is little I can tell you about Vissuda. However, it would seem that their music will speak for them with “Drone Octet” developing from a languorous ambient groove into a hypnotic blend of edgy guitar and wistful female vocals. That’s a cool concoction in anyone’s in-car entertainment.