Song reviews

“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,

The mid paced “Everyone Expected Her to Dance” is unexpectedly mainstream and commercial for a Glasgow singer songwriter with Liam Tennant pulling at all the right heart strings in his search for success. The sound quality made my ears bleed but a re-recording with a suitably sweeping string arrangement could do some business.

Convincing post punk with a past midnight too cool for school groove, Birmingham band Bombers throw their retro guitar powered edginess into “Forecast”. If this were 1979, record companies would be camped outside their door. Unfortunately it’s not so Bombers will most likely be blessed with only critical approval.

“In The Wake” is as hot, hard and heavy as you would expect of a band on the cusp of hard rock and metal but SilenceThe Machine don’t actually deliver anything that you haven’t heard many times before. Too safe for success? Probably.