Song reviews

Hard to believe that I missed this one from Glasgow’s own superdiva Ashley Collins. “First Love” is a fluffy bunny of a song that neatly pastiches all the plastic pop princesses that contaminate the charts these days. The lyrics are precisely pitched at a level for radio play and you can hear that extended dance remix coming right behind it. On a topical note, Glasgow’s pop princess is, of course, a class act and has always managed to keep her top on unlike certain other (real) princesses we could mention.

Thought I heard this one before but maybe not as I should have a mental block in all matters concerning Aberdeen. Anyway, venerable Glaswegians The Skunnered join “The Road to Aberdeen” and name check the cities and towns as they head up the A90 to hell.  It’s a good natured song that rolls along nicely but Aberdeen, believe me, is not worthy of this song. Or any other song for that matter.

Was I Supposed To” is a neat little Europop song that, given the amount of retro influenced music floating about these days, seems almost timeless in its execution. Robotic rhythms drive the song along while Cajsa Siik floats her sultry voice on top of it all.  Really rather nice.

“It Ain’t Over” is a delightful piece of summery pop music that cleverly mixes some bleak humour into the kind of upbeat confection about obsession that might seem sweet enough  to rot your teeth but, in fact, is destined to capture your heart. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that “It Ain’t Over” is the kind of song that Kate Nash thinks she can write. She can’t but Miss Li can.

The Skunnered return here with remarkable regularity. It’s like they enjoy pain or something. Anyway, "The De'il's Awa' Wi'The Exciseman” sets them on course for a mellow pub rocking Burns Night somewhere in probably not very sunny Glasgow. As usual, the song is performed in a good natured, easy on the ear way that will no doubt excite the ears of the sherry drinkers amongst you.

Instrumental jazz isn’t really my thing but it is undeniable that the Jurek Jagoda Trio have the practised fluency of talented musicians and “Swobodna” emphasises that fluency in a manner that Dave Grusin would surely approve of. Music for grownups, as they say.

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.