Song reviews


  Monsters by Sunday Morning Service


Monsters cover art


London based trio looking at the stars

"Figured Out By Now" wasn't the most promising of starts sounding, as it does, like something the soulless son of Ricky Ross would do. "Monsters" was rather more interesting with mellow, melancholic guitars nicely complementing the words in this mainstream ballad. "Easy Street" turned out to be the strongest track showing a lot more character and individuality with Nick Tate's growling drawl of a voice finding its rightful place on the rock stage. "Blame it on the whisky" go the lyrics. Damn right you can.


  Animals by Turning Plates


Animals cover art


Pioneers of the gay ambient genre?

"Animals"- Lo-fi part acoustic, part prog rock, part Radiohead that sounds like it got lost on its way home from sixties' San Francisco. "Sleeping Trojans" gets a bit more aggressive but once more does the lo-fi reverb thing only this time like C86 on low end urban drugs while watching some German silent movie. "The Tin Man" - didn't even notice that this was a different song. Need to sum this one up quickly. Got it. Pass the bong.


  Pray by Miscued Vein


Pray cover art


New rock band from Carluke

Two songs here. "Pray" turns out to be a pretty directionless rock song that just keeps going and going without ever actually getting anywhere. A serious bit of editing would improve it however and, almost as if to prove the point, "Triplet of Ugly Sisters" is shorter, tighter and consequently a (metric) tonne better. It's nice to be able to say something nice about anything from Lanarkshire and this time I can.


Review date: 
  www.miscuedvein.com

  Burma Starmy by White Light Theory


Burma Starmy cover art


4 piece Glasgow band doing the indie rock thing

“Burma Starmy” doesn’t really impress weighed down as it is by leaden use of power chords on the obligatory maxed out electric guitar. “Future in Lights” is much more convincing with some decent male vocals to carry the weight. As a band, they need to work on developing their individuality but they’ve made a decent start here.


  Years by Martin Docherty


Years cover art


Singer songwriter from Cambuslang

Three songs lacking in musical discipline (“Years”, “Holy Water” and “No More”) – all of them take an age to start and go on well past their sell by date. “Years” hits a remarkable 6 minutes and 40 seconds relying solely on repetition to get there. Neither a poet nor a storyteller, Mr Docherty really should grasp that less is sometimes more. “No More”, curiously enough, was exactly what I was thinking while I was listening to it.


  Broken Man by Kris Tennant


Broken Man cover art


Young Glasgow singer songwriter.

If he is actually from Glasgow and is young then he speaks the whole truth for he is clearly both a singer and songwriter on the evidence of these three songs. “Broken Man” and “You Deserve Better” are well written rock songs but the standout track is “Where Did It All Go Wrong”. A very commercial song with some class lyrics like “ignorance is bliss when you are a miss with three babies”, it marks Kris Tennant out as one to watch out for.



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