Song reviews

I was just thinking that there must be some way to make the incredibly unadventurous indie rock genre more interesting and along comes Bristol band Call The Doctor. “Seventeen” would have been a dull thing indeed if it were not for the dramatic yet poised vocals of Patti Aberhart. Yes, add a girl with some undeniable style and indie rock gets interesting. Who would have figured that? Apart from me that is.

Not much to go on here apart from the info that JJ Quinlan is an Irishman now settled in Israel. Possibly the fun packed political situation in that part of the world inspired the earnest sentiments of “Revolution Road” if not its straight down the road eighties rock feel. Nice, fluid guitar work though that reminded me a bit of JJ Gilmour.

Had to listen to this one twice (which actually wasn’t too much of a hardship). “Leave It ‘Til Tomorrow” seems to be the work of a modern day Swedish band but sounds more like it had fallen off an album by an American seventies soft rock band like The Doobie Brothers. I suspect that you may have to be of a certain age or greater to get this type of music but it is nicely done here.

Retro time again with heavily sequenced eighties electro rock getting resurrected by Portland band Endless Loop. “Uniform” works out pretty well for them with appealing girl (Samantha Hughes) boy (Jeff Knight) voices emoting suitably bleak and disaffected words.  The past might well be their future.

Italians just have more style. It’s a simple fact and “La Processione” provides ample proof of that. It is nothing more than indie rock but nonetheless swaggers mercilessly under the weight of its inherent refrigerator coolness with Luigi Bruno’s vocals talking the talk while the rest of the band walk the walk. Almost as good as a Fiat Dino Coupé.

Though they appear to hail from Edinburgh, Who’s Edna sound more than a bit mainstream American reminding me here of bands like The Hush Sound.  “Hellbent” uses a piano to good effect to lift this mid paced rock song out of the mire of mediocrity and there is endearing normality – for want of a better word – to the female vocals.

In its favour, “The Human Connection” is a decent song and the lead vocal is convincing. That said, and this is a common failing in Scottish rock bands, Sonic Templars then trip themselves up with an unimaginative guitar player – I’d go so far as to say that he (?) sounds (badly) looped – and a lack of individuality to their sound.  They need to try harder, basically.

Despite being a band of actual brothers, Ded Rabbit don’t really seem to gel. That said, “Elm Row” has an endearingly funky feel to it and “We Could Be Free” is (indie) rockier but similarly good natured. The bigger problem, however, is the singer who struggles badly with the key he is trying to sing in on both these songs.

Even the title suggests that this will be an upmarket tune and “Anemone” is indeed used as an educated rhyme for "…not your enemy”. Otherwise, this keyboard driven and somewhat world weary song reeks of smoking jackets and Noel Coward which is a good thing, by the way.

A nice slice of non-threatening mid-paced housewife-friendly pop from a London based duo. “Always Yours” is a bit dated in its production and goes on a good minute and a half longer than it needs to but at least there is plenty of heart in the vocals.

If you follow horse racing then you know it is all in the breeding. So it is perhaps no surprise that Scary Shapes - born of The Hussys and The Ten To Five Project it would seem - drive "Chatter" onwards and upwards with melodies and the constant use of chorus. "Common Sense" seems rather more mature and substitutes a bleak lyrical sensibility for singalongability and consequently provides proof that Scary Shapes can stand out from the crowd. Now, if I were a betting man…

"Sometimes" sounds just like the kind of song that a midrange Scottish band should release if it wants to court success. Driven on by guitars and inoffensively clever, Calm As The Colour have taken the safe route here but it is nonetheless a shame that they did not try a bit harder to stand out from the crowd. That said, I can see people liking this one. It's a lentil soup kind of thing.