Song reviews

Almost a guilty pleasure, “The Return” gives Sleep Signals the opportunity to import a whole bundle of melodic metal moves into their distinctly theatrical oeuvre. Crank it up and you feel an inexplicable urge to wear mascara (but in a robustly stylish way).

Those proven retro analogue synth sounds provide Fluo Sobre with the means to turn “Je t’attends” into something hypnotic with the sultry voice of Ljuba De Angelis emoting the lyrics in the French equivalent to siren enticement.

Starless buys a ticket to Never Never Land and duly sends her song “No No No” on its way into a world of pastel colours, sequenced loops and grey shadows. Without a doubt, this is a journey inwards but the audience for this song will feel synchronicity with her pain.

Agreeably untidy, Molosser CRUDE use their two up musical abilities to bang the drum and strum their overdriven guitar in honour of the ghost of the early days of rock. Primitive perhaps but "Bye Bye Grace" is worthy of a listen at maximum volume.

Some might be surprised at how close Nico EV has come to duplicating the sentimental side of the modern Nashville sound but this girl from Glasgow has always had the gift of applying gloss to all her songs and “Oh My Love” is further proof of that.

I suppose that, in these troubled times, it should be no surprise that the subject of a song would be of darker things and Subatomic Strangers duly go sugar free with their song “Special Satellite.” It’s a low key approach but they make their point.

“Blood Wolf Moon” sounds like it has fallen out of a (better) time with those indie sentiments meshing in with bleak synthpop sounds. If anyone can successfully do deathpop on this side of the pond it would be Vulture Party and indeed they do.

Sugary sentimentality powers “Colour Me” and, with all the precision of the best pop songs, Alex Amor tugs at the heartstrings that we all wish we had. Radio friendly in a delightfully dreamy way, this song is candy floss to the ears.

More sounds from the urban jungle with cumgirl8 throwing guitars, distortion, wiped out vocals and tortured electronica into the lo-fi dustbin to make “Dumb Bitch”. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and this one makes me all fuzzy.

You can’t go far wrong with a bit of blue collar philosophy when it is wrapped up with Sunset Black’s nihilistic rap that echoes the mindset of those who will never live the Kardashian dream. “White Trash Wasted” is made to go with beer.

That retro rock vibe pervades “Lover Meet My Eyes” and, with the addition of guitar loops and synthesiser swirls designed to wash over you, Matt Boylan-Smith soon magnifies the enclosed emotion into a form that even FM radio of old could digest.

I like a song with muscles and “Dig Me Out” has definitely made use of both a gym membership and some steroids. Meisha & The Spanks rip up some hardcore power chords to start the fire and keep it going until the building burns down.