Song reviews

It's all out there if you look for it or maybe it will just hunt you down. Toypop is a new genre to me but Shifty Sarah seems to be Princess Number One in it with "The Fiddle" being a somewhat skewed take on nursery rhymes implemented via clever and cute lo-fi loops. I tried to hate this – really, I did – but got overcome by the incessant catchiness and the wheelbarrow of charm hidden amongst the chords. Grumpy reviewer therefore admits defeat and gives this one the thumbs up.

You can't go far wrong with one man and a resonator guitar in my book and Half Deaf Clatch – I probably should look up what a clatch actually is in case it is something (ahem) dirty – steers a steady course here. Both "Dancing In The Rain" and "Hammer Down Blues" are earnest and respectful, even reverential to the format and will not disappoint fans of such things. As Jimi Hendrix once said " Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel". Half Deaf Clatch, who is probably called Nigel or Jeffrey in real life, clearly feels it.

"Sun Catcher" comes across as mellow post rock with a little bit of folk thrown in for good measure with singer Stewart Bryden going high and clear instead of down and dirty as you might expect of a Glasgow band.  "Sitting Ducks" is harder and heavier and somewhat fond of a Cream riff too with the end result being more up-tempo and probably indicative of the band's true direction. I doubt this band would have any problem scaling their songs into the epic but they do sound like they are playing it a bit safe here. I'd like to see them take some risks and thereby stamp some serious individuality on to their songs.

Sometimes I have to despair at the sheer lack of inventiveness found in hard rock and metal music these days. Then you hear a band like Heavy Smoke and my faith is restored. "Dopamine" swaggers and staggers like a song on a mission to encourage the abuse of any and all legally prohibited substances. Promise is therefore demonstrated and duly acknowledged.

Got a somewhat vague recollection that Ms Cameron has sought our words (and duly she has – Ed) before. No matter as her mature, world weary and rather ethereal approach to a song pays dividends to the demanding listener. "Where The Pebbles Grind and Scrape" is no less than a poetic torch song and Ms Cameron is no less than a poetic torch singer. It's that simple.

A sparse bit of blues based from a Kent based loop artist, "Darkest of Days" spins up more in the way of angst and inner torment than you would get from a hundred dreadfully sensitive singer songwriters.  It would appear that his real name is Daniel Turnbull which seems way too ordinary to be the creator of something this special.

Curiously laidback considering The Beautiful Game call themselves a rock band, "Broken Clocks" seems to have a notable degree of retro reticence built in compared to what many of their competitors in the post Libertines market place have put out in recent times. The song works though, avoids the obvious clichés and Jason Crowley's vocals have the mark of authority. Thumbs up time, I think.

Another case of a man alone with his sonic textures. Describing his own music as hypnotic seems fair enough as "Unleashed You Spoke" relies heavily on synthetic repetition. Rather more successful is the delicately undulating (and curiously named) "I Take The Form of Your Skeleton". Nonetheless, despite being easy on the ear, Mr Beckley's music seems insufficiently complex compared to European practitioners of ambient electronica like, for example, PNDC or Housework.

Where did this one come from? The song ("Mr Moon I'mWorking Against Time") is mellow and slickly arranged and Ms Cameron's voice shows genuine poise. Despite my ignorance of her  background, she sounds like she has paid her dues with a bit of the Marianne Faithfull (without the cigarettes and smack, of course) about her phrasing that neatly counterpoints the floating above the ground lyrics of the song.

Voice of disaffected youth with much in the way of affecting words. You can literally feel the anger in "Dead Beat Dad" while "Perfect Kind of Love" is a distinctly disturbing reflection on obsession.  The white boy rap presentation on "Dead Beat Dad" does grate somewhat. However, "Perfect Kind Of Love" uses its lo-fi origins rather more effectively.  I don't know what direction Shane Smith is going to take his music but I think that it might be interesting to find out.

Hey! A band I have actually heard of for a change! I think I've even said something nice about them in the past (or at least I think I did). Unfortunately, it proved be something of a struggle to think of something nice to say about the leaden and overlong "Epitaph" other than that the Bangles might have used it for a B side.  The band are on much safer ground with "Touch Wood" with some dirty guitar counterpointing those impassioned vocals nicely. Even so, the song would have benefited by being shortened by about 40 seconds.

Seems there still are practitioners of soft rock out there with These Curious Thoughts – a transatlantic co-operative – being an example if these two songs are representative. "Care In The Community" sounds like it is part of some high concept album (its Alan Parsons time again!) while "World of Pain" throws in a bit of rather obvious retro riff stealing. The vocals seem just about right for this kind of thing which just might be your kind of thing.