Song reviews

Anything by Ken Stringfellow (of the Posies) is going to worth a listen but, even with that said, “Doesn't It Remind You of Something” is no less than a gem. In a tale that encompasses drug dealing, credit card fraud and domestic violence all delivered in deadly laconic tones, Ken and Charity Rose Thielen turn themselves into a modern day Nancy and Lee crashing their country powered car on the highway of life. Glorious!

In something of a contrast to their boisterous previous output, “Lost In You” is instead an emotional, and rather conventional, rock ballad. Chris Woods throws his heart into his vocals but, even so, the song ends up sounding a little flat. Nice enough but a better arrangement would have given the song more impact.

Sounding older than they probably are, Dundee band No Egos go all walking, talking rock style with “Hope”. You could, if you were prepared to abandon your inbuilt coolness, even sing along with this one and the impassioned male vocals readily seal that deal. So, a good song done well and you can’t ask for more than that.

A strange one this. “Island Girl” sounds like it should have been a trip down Barry White street if it hadn’t been for the cheesy looped backing track and some off putting vocals that sound artificially lowered in pitch. Either that or King Loverr goes flat at the bottom end of his range and has been rather brutally autotuned.  Either way, King Loverr needs to try harder.

"Fy Wnaf" is about as melodramatic middle of the road as you can go with a laptop and good intentions. Donna Davies - she is Welsh as you may have guessed - has the voice to carry this song (and any other) off even if the plastic production makes her sound more karaoke than she ought to. The potential is there, therefore, but money needs to be spent in order that Ms Davies can be saved from a future on Saturday night television talent shows.

“Spirit of the Rain” is to be part of a concept album – so it says here – and, perhaps unsurprisingly, sounds like it is a small part of something bigger. It’s an instrumental too with our Mr Verrasto’s guitar quite rightly to the fore in best soft rock style whilst he makes a sterling effort to stop the song being dragged into the abyss of background music by the rather leaden backing track.

“Polaroid” is one of those mid paced songs that sounds just right. The backing is understated and Carmen Smith simply runs the show balancing confidence and passion with a polished professionalism in her vocals. In days gone by, this song would have been classed as radio friendly but nowadays, it is more likely to have soundtrack to a major movie stamped upon it. Credit is duly given to a song well done.

Not much to comment on here as "Girls Are Fun Again" is little more than a lot of looping and uninspired laptop trickery. Duller than Aberdeen, in other words.

What’s the phrase I’m looking for? That’s right – delicately retro. The Skunnered are delicately retro with "The Thursday Millionaire" having the sonic signature of a sixties’ Cliff Richard record. Nothing to scare your auntie then but I don’t suppose that was the point and I have to admit that I liked the shoo-be-doo backing vocals.

With a beep and a chant, Glasgow’s We Are The Physics once more rock the Ikea decorated house with “Goran Ivanisevic”.  The song rattles along at a fair old dramatic pace and, for reasons verging on unknown, I was left with the impression that this is what Queen would have sounded like if they had done a Depeche Mode style change of direction. Thunderbirds are go and all that.

Wholesome sounding female singer loads up on the melodic metaphors and sets sails to a land of sensitive poetry and deeper meaning. There are many like her but nonetheless there is something positively endearing about Jo Schornikow’s wistful voice that keeps you listening to "Bird's Nest".

Lo-fi NYC songwriter  Scott Rudd sets his guitar and bare bones backing to stun in this short, angst ridden and angular journey into the trials and tribulations of relationships.  Ok, so "Bullshit Love" is a messy demo but, with a bit more effort, it could make for a very respectable bit of album filler.