Song reviews

Barring the tired sound bite serving as an intro, “If This River Was Whiskey” makes for a good introduction to Cornelius The Third. All you really get is a spirited rap over a looped bit of blues guitar but he puts his heart into to it and that makes all the difference. If our Cornelius were to get a substance abuse problem then he could potentially rival underground heroes like NNMaddox.

Although part of a cunning plan to release twelve singles in a year, “No Regrets” is not really a single – in the sense of the song having any commercial viability or purpose – at all. It is just another example of a sensitive singer songwriter showing us all just how sensitive he is by piling on the melancholy. Distinctly dull.

OK, so David Bayles pulls practically all his sonic influences from bigger and more successful bands but evident care and attention has gone into “Snow Angel” with the end result being something even your granny would like.  Nicely poetic lyrics too.

London four piece art pop band Cop On The Edge have released this song, “Signs of Life”, ahead of the EP from whence it will come. It’s a jaunty – there’s a word I haven’t used for a while – song that has all those nice little touches like hooks and choruses that a lot of bands forget about these days. Even the rather obvious retro Talking Heads influences enhance rather than distract.

Pleasingly over emotive, in the Morrissey style, vocals by Thomas David lifts “Lowlands” far above its Glasgow eighties guitar pop roots and takes the song soaring off into near cabaret. The result is, of course, pretentious but it is also undeniably a performance.

A sensitive singer songwriter with some obvious sonic ambition, Silent Sleep attempts to escape Liverpool with this stateless wanderer. “We’ve Fallen Out Again” is likeable and amiably aimless but lacks any real sparkle although the trumpet solo did suggest that Silent Sleep is somewhat ashamed to admit to his Britpop influences.

Revived from Midwest obscurity, the Pedaljets unleash a pretty good facsimile of their eighties proto indie rock sound. “Riverview” riffs along happily and makes a good accompaniment to things like beer and fast cars. The song has been released on vinyl, naturally, so add it to your menu.

“Largs” is nicely done with the occasional nice harmony thrown in and yet is indistinguishable from the music of a dozen other undistinguished Scottish bands. It’s a safe bet therefore that one or more of the band members was conceived to the music of Deacon Blue.

“Two Hearts” provides more evidence that Sweden is the epicentre of European electro pop with Sanna Hallgren’s voice echoing all the right influences (like Bjork) whilst simultaneously showing a near Germanic avoidance of actual quirkiness. One day all computers will sound like this.

Courageously placing the male vocals completely at odds with the rest of the band, Brittsommar’s pseudo Americana sounds like an unfortunate karaoke version of a Chris Isaak song with the twang surgically removed.  In other words, it’s more than a bit unconvincing.

Sweden does indie pop rather well these days and “Do You Remember” by Josefina Sanner is a nice, confident example of this style that cleverly remains just inside genre expectations. She’s easy on the ear and the song is catchy and that is about as much as you could reasonably ask for these days.

Although apparently from Italy, Apash 2012 nonetheless delivers “Blacker” in the time honoured style free sensitive acoustic singer songwriter way. A guaranteed challenge to your ability to stay interested (or awake for that matter).