Song reviews

“Join The Dots” is jaunty indie pop just like it used to be back in the days when wry lyrics were where it was at and Pat’s Alternative Bus Tour duly make you feel like you are listening to the soundtrack to a Bill Forsyth movie. Sweet.

There’s a decent level of emotional intensity to be found in “We Speak We Bleed” and Eie have rather more authentic content than is usual for a rock band these days. This is, at last, a rock song that can be enjoyed at less than maximum volume.

Remarkably, Pollyanna is actually French yet she sounds as American as you would expect of a sensitive singer songwriter of these times. ” Your Smile Is Cold” is, as you might expect, a song of the heart but it is a sincere one.

“This Town” is a nicely polished example of an off centre modern day pop song. Zanna Black duly mixes literate lyrics with guitars as the song takes you all the way to the bridge. This one will be on heavy coffee shop rotation.

If there were to be such a thing as fragile melancholy then the soundtrack for it would be something like “Sonar” by Ichiko Aoba. I have no idea what she is actually singing about but I sigh in synchronicity with her words.

The Josh Joplin Group sound distinctly mainstream and there is little doubt that they are strong on the sentiment with their song “One More Someone” confidently tugging on the heartstrings of the listener.

Dutch singer Daniel De Boer sure sounds serious and his song “Beside Me” abounds with both earnest emotion and, lyrically at least, spiritual intent. It’s a deeper meaning type of song for the kind of people who need deeper meaning.

It would not be the blues without a guitar and Paulie Boy Blues adds some fluid old school rock seasoning to his version of the standard “Ramblin’ On My Mind” to duly take the song for a stroll down easy street.

An endearing mix of neo indie pop and synth pop from Melys with “Santa Cruz” having enough in the way of retro influences to induce an attack of sentimentality. You can’t keep a good band down, as the man with the plan is prone to say.

Litany may sound like another looped to the beat plastic pop princess on the way up yet “Sad Girl” takes it all the way to the chorus with more than the expected amount of radio airplay friendliness. A hit? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Heralding a possible, and long overdue, revival of what the oldies would call a pop song are The Tisburys and their song “Forever” duly bounces along in a good natured and guitar driven way. There’s even a chorus. Good enough.

Decidedly commercial but not without a certain oddball style, Mollie Elizabeth bakes some discontinuities and oblique lyrics into her song “Vegas Venetian” thus making another worthy three minute snack for the cognoscenti.