Song reviews

More urban sounds from Gwen and The Good Thing and “Heat Wave” is a by the numbers bit of looped until lifeless backbeat topped by Gwenann Taylor’s overdosed on vibrato voice. That said, she doesn’t sound like anyone else doing the rounds and that is actually a good thing in my book.

A rough and ready take on that ever, or in many cases never, loved edgy Scottish guitar pop sound, “Another Girl I Dropped” is lively enough but lacks the spark of greatness. It’s early days though for Tumfy & The Deecers and there is sufficient evidence here to suggest that they can do better.

Well it’s retro but it’s British retro for a change and The Everglows even squeeze a touch of that accursed indie rock as the secret ingredient in their reverential reinvention of that 60’s beat sound. “Until Tomorrow” therefore sounds duly respectful to a time long gone even if the light of success only shines brightly on the vocals of Andrew Smith.

I like a bit of class and the mellow jazzy worldliness of Martyna Wren is as fine an example of class as you are likely to get from this sceptered isle. She’s not out to scare your auntie and, in fact, your auntie would welcome her into her home with open arms and an offer of a nice cup of tea. Accordingly, “Al Capone’s Girl” tips its hat at times past whilst remaining eager to please in the present. Your best silver cutlery is safe with this woman.

Mark Saunders – he’s British so he knows the meaning of being taxed until it feels like you have picked up the soap – rants blues style in his cover of “Taxman” with not much more than a slide guitar and a voice partly influenced, at least, by whisky. It’s a cover right enough but he’s got the sentiment right.

“Real Life” is a quite sweet if unadventurous run through the gamut of analogue electro, and indeed retro, sounds and, if anything, serves to show how much better Molly Beanland’s voice is than her material. With a better song, I could see her doing some business.

Hey, this is actually a Swedish band although their name pretty much indicates both their style and influences. “Twenty Nine”, despite the best efforts of vocalist Anders Nilsson, is yet another retake of that west coast sound of the seventies American folk rock sound. The present is once more written in the past.

It’s been a while since we last heard from Will Tang and, with “Lifetime”, he has taken a temporary break from being a blues powered music missionary to show all those sensitive singer songwriters out there how to do it properly with this simple, stripped out song. Talent, as they say, always rises to the top.

Riffing down the middle of the indie rock highway are Weatherbird. “Where Eye Wanna Be” is certainly the kind of song that you would expect of manly boys on the way up but, when it comes down to it, we’ve all heard this kind of thing before. Many, many times before.

Eminently irritating and yet annoyingly catchy, Swedish songwriter Dandan kicks his laptop into turbo mode to both invigorate the plastic powered “Secrets” and simultaneously make it compatible with the style aspirations of every Fiat 500 owner. This song will undoubtedly be the soundtrack to an advert sometime soon.

Revolving Doors – the artists formerly known as No Fxd Abode – seem to have taken lessons from much bigger bands and developed their heartfelt indie rock sound into the kind of music that is made for festivals (and big ones at that). Chris Woods, with his customary confidence, picks up the words to “Slip Away” and throws them right to the back of the crowd.

Pleasantly redolent of San Francisco when it was on the cusp of brotherly love and oblivion, Illinois’ Whitewolfsonicprincess roll an organ powered smoke it up joint with “Sad Eyed Prophet”. The female vocals seem almost too serious for the laidback groove but, as they say, the guitar gently weeps anyway.