Song reviews

“Invent The Future” bodes well for Irish band Castlestreet. Although the song has something of a slow start, it takes off towards the folk rock horizon at the two minute mark with some vigour. Festival friendly without a doubt.

With a sweet and soulful voice, Ozara Odé is nothing if not easy on the ear. “Higher Plain” shows her to be a singer of class and distinction who can bring that seventies’ downbeat funk feel to all that she does. Pretty much guaranteed to put you in a mellow mood, (especially if you chop the last two minutes off this song).

Minimalist electronica that uses repetition and a fluttering trip out beat makes “And Now I’m Ready To Go” sound much like any other example of the laptop and sample genre except for the oddball, over emoted vocals. The song does not really have anywhere to go but that is probably the point.

“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.