Song reviews

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.

Pub friendly pretty much sums up this band. You can imagine them squeezing in these originals between Deacon Blue and Eagles covers with, I would think, many people of indeterminate age finding post karaoke pleasure in “Good Morning Glasgow Town”. However, despite the dodgy mid Atlantic meets Paisley accent, the wry retro charms of “Wrecking Ball” suggest that a bus pass is not all these ageing folk rockers have to look forward to.

I normally don’t do any research for a demo review but when a little Google bunny told me that singer of Already Gone – one Luke Maskery – had appeared on Stars in Your Eyes as John Denver then I had to wonder if these songs would be a fame driven drive off the bridge of credibility, perhaps into the depths of the indie rock sea. Fortunately however, the rock this band hits is southern rock with bad boy vocals and muscular guitars much to the fore. Of the two songs, “One Good Reason” is quite clearly the radio friendly one with a nice hook but it is the sometimes awkward “Girls I Used To Know” that shows the spark of originality.

Another case of yesterday is today as this Scottish duo dish up the plastic everything retro cake and top it with scratchy guitar and restrained female vocals.  “The Day I Died” goes nowhere fast and struggles to keep your interest but “You’ve Changed” shows promise although it needs an arrangement rather than just repetition to give it some impact.

It might be sunny in Dumfries but it seems to be shades of grey for this band.  “Preachment” sees the male singer layering in the post rock melancholy before the rather abrupt end. Similarly reflective is “Ravens” with a minimal keyboard backing leaving your attention with the effective female vocals though, again, the song just grinds to an unexpected halt. At least they left me wanting more…

Zeindl Autohaus is a good name for a band. It suggests posturing krautrock or maybe hardcore underground electro. What it doesn’t suggest is curiously mellow and harmonious vocals decorating remarkably laidback indie rock. Admittedly, “How RU” instead of rocking out like it should does sound a bit half-hearted as does “Inner Self” for that matter. However, with some attention to making their songs swagger instead of stumble, this Edinburgh band could make the right noises for a bit of the old success.

Though they struggle to escape their rather obvious influences, there is no denying that Dalzel put their heart into it. Neither “Notion” nor “I Don’t Mind” are likely to stick in your mind however but I suspect that this relatively new Glasgow band might do rather better in the live environment. Their singer stands out as the kind of guy who could do some real damage with better songs.