Song reviews

If memory serves, Royston Vince was responsible for a couple of ambient type albums themed on his native London but here he has instead gone all sensitive singer songwriter. “At The End of the Day”, fortunately, strikes off in the right direction for acoustic melancholy without stopping off for self-indulgence. Quite sweet really.

I have little difficulty working up enthusiasm for some intelligent power pop so, despite being a rough and ready demo, “House of Cards” by Edinburgh band The Alibis just about impressed me. The drummer did sound like a machine but there was definitely heart in the vocals. Oh, and you could sing along with this song which is always a good sign.

Bouncy and highly derivative,  “Does She Make Noise” is about as fine an example of style over substance in just over two minutes as I have heard in quite a while.  The Bright Ones who purvey this song to you hail from Brighton so it would appear that they are also too cool to burn the midnight oil thinking up a name. The next big thing? I wouldn’t be even slightly surprised by that.

“It’s All The Same To Me” is a competent, if somewhat uninspiring, song from a reasonably new Glasgow singer songwriter.  That said, Andrew Maguire does have a neat way with a lyric and that helps to compensate for the awkward arrangement and the limitations in his musicianship.

A Scottish band with a desire to escape the bedroom, Enemies of the State unleash their energetic indie rock “Day After Day” like a projectile aimed at success.  The song might initially sound like it could be from any other band in the genre but the spirited yet ordered performance suggests that there is a smarter than average mind behind it.

Distinctly anodyne piece of mainstream indie pop from Scottish band Fluorescent Hearts. I’m sure they have a better song somewhere but “Guide You Home” could be by just about any other indie pop band in the world.

Endearing and melodic, Craig Hudson has clearly put a lot of thought into how to charm people with the ornate musical construction that underpins “So Long”.  The lyrics may well be by the book but you can’t help but like this song. It is, as they say, a proper pop song.

There was a time when bands did albums because that was what a grown up band did.  Twelve Ton Trouble – a Guernsey based rock band it would seem – are a grown up band and “Chosen” goes big on the emotion courtesy of a deeply macho whisky soaked vocal by Robert Hunter. No man bags here and that’s for certain.

What time is it (I hear you say)? It’s balls to the wall rock time again and Scottish band Third Rail have the volume turned to max in “Set To Kill”. The requisite riffs are there of course but it is the delinquent female vocals that are the icing on the cake for this song.

It is almost an insult to describe “We’re All Dead” as festival friendly fodder for cardigan wearers everywhere but that is what Folks have carefully crafted here. You can’t argue with that approach, of course, as it has worked well for Efterklang, Mumford and Sons etc etc etc

Somewhat offbeat in its edgy presentation, “Goblin’s Fruit” nonetheless captures your attention with left of centre female vocals – Bjork meets Melanie is about as close as I can get - and the sort of oblique lyrics that make you wonder what she is actually singing about. Should go down well with the better educated listener.

“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,