Song reviews

“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.

“Torment of Martha” is a confident and catchy example of the electro pop genre from Sheffield band Betari’s Box. As the band’s name might well suggest to you, it’s all in the attitude and Loretta’s vocal has plenty of that. Like I said, eminently catchy.

So determinedly retro that the song seemed more of a pastiche than anything else, “My Heart is a Yoyo” shows Swedish band The Tranq to be purveyors of pretentious pop music just like you used to get when A-Ha meant something musical. Whether that is actually a good thing is open to debate.

With seemingly no particular place to go and enough obvious intelligence and musical ability never to get there, Chicago rock improvisers Gunnelpump take “Bolander” for a walk through the park of virtuosity before taking it home for a herbal tea.  It wasn’t love but it was a promising first date.

Cool as a cucumber and influenced by that deadly seventies west coast soft rock groove, Greta Gaines stays honey sweet with the vocals throughout "Good Side" whilst intermittently roughing the song up with edgy guitars and barely repressed desire. It’s grown up big town but only if the sun shines in your zip code.  Fortunately the sun always shines here.

Moody slice of downbeat indie pop from up and coming Scottish band Lost Ghost.  Although "Tunnels" does not stray far from what you would expect of a Scottish indie pop band these days, Gabriella Biazotti’s on the edge of laconic vocal has the necessary appeal to reach the hearts of more than west end beard scratchers.

With wishing to stereotype an entire nation, “Mobile Homes” is exactly what you would expect of a (slightly) quirky Swedish indie pop band. Banana Beach do what is expected of them and – in a meaningful way of course – make their mark.

“The Human Race” finds Jens Wennberg up to his usual tricks with acoustic guitars and distant drums leading the song towards the restrained melancholy of his voice. If you liked his previous releases then you will like this one too.