Song reviews

On the lam from the band Haivercraft, Matt Johnston moves his style towards more conventional Scottish rock (Idlewild and perhaps even The Big Dish) with these two songs. “Somebody To Blame” strolls right down the middle of the road but is still a decent song. “Pacemaker” shows more spirit and style but our Mr Johnston’s delivery of both songs is a touch too polite to make that all important lasting impact on your ears.

For a rock band claiming to be from the rougher parts of Scotland, Dirty/Clean seem rather tame with “Like You Always Knew” failing to escape from the combined shadows of Oasis and The Stone Roses. “Nothing” is a better song but the performances are again lacking in the sort of spark that might perhaps one day make a fire.

Light and meaningful in the way of young, thoughtful, singer songwriters, Craig White does a pleasant enough job of his song “Made Up Stories” but I have to observe that he really needs to man up if he is to stand out from what is a very large crowd of similarly sensitive souls.

From the primordial pool of Glasgow rock bands comes Death By Ambition. “Electric Rooster” flies the flag well for that sort of thing although the song stops just when it was getting interesting.  “Mirror Signal Manoeuvre” , on the other hand, is rather less successful with weak lyrics and an insipid male vocal dragging the song down.

A bit of a surprise here as JapanFour neatly escape the limitations of being a West Lothian band with “Garden of Eden”. Decorating the song with some sharp lyrics and a solid Britpop on the rampage groove lets the band stand tall over their geographic contemporaries.

“Good God (I’m On Fire)” has that eighties bombastic feel that you would expect of an American hair rock band aiming at the pop charts. There’s a big guitar solo, as you would expect, but the spotlight shines most brightly on the singer’s robust yet simultaneously camp delivery. Safe to say that Haivercraft got it just about right with this one.  “I Want You” shows a sensitive side to the band but that song is ultimately destined to be forever a flipside.

What’s this? A band from Lanarkshire that isn’t doing the three power chord thing? Apparently so, as “All I Ever Wanted” shows Minor Delilah to be a band with a sensitive side and a perhaps unhealthy interest in Coldplay. That said, with a bit of work on developing their individuality, they could be interesting.

“Velvet Sunburst” is the sort of song that you would expect of one of the better Scottish indie pop bands these days. It is nicely put together and draws from psychedelic influences in a successful attempt to bring light into these dull grey days. Really rather pleasant.

Playing to their strengths on the sensitive side of indie rock are London band The Beautiful Game. “After Dark” is a melodic and mellow song that shows more maturity than you would expect of the genre. I could see this being a crowd pleaser.

Mop my fevered brow for it is time for some stomping, tub thumping and downright raucous piano driven alt-rock that draws as a much from the blues for its redemptive spirit as it does from twisted showtunes for its dramatic impact. “The Big Bad Man” is the song and it hits the mark dead on.

Whatever happened to mellow, melodic folk rock? A child of seventies thought long lost? Not really if Texas band Taco Land have anything to do with it. "C'est La Vie" is an up-tempo song that rolls along the highway of life in a SUV friendly manner even it really wants to be in a '69 Dodge Charger.

Really, what's the point? Meca does the generic, totally plastic "urban" thing with only some dull rapping to break up the repeated chant of "I'm Famous". I kind of hope this is some sort of pastiche or at least part of some master plan to get on American Idol but, in my heart, I know it is not.