Song reviews

With almost cinematic sweep, Praise Team jump from clarity and harmony to murk and melancholy over the five minutes and 46 seconds of “Red Balloon”. No idea what the song is about but that matters not as your ears stumble about in the shadows.

A song for our times perhaps? “Good Girl” sounds like it should be an eighties power ballad yet the lyrics stray from dramatically enhanced matters of the heart into something altogether more cogent and self-reflective. Interesting.

Now this is more like it with Blushing taking the ethereal superhighway to get “Sugarcoat” to its destination. Brooding right up to the red line and fuelled by murky melancholy, this song is a road map to success.

Annie Liang mixes minimalist synth pop in with the sound of the city and then adds a layer of metaphorical irony to the lyrics of “Silly Girl” with the result being something of a twisted fairytale for our times.

Much in the way or brooding electronica and reverb can be found in “Golden Eyes and Tears” by Eli and Fur and I am sure that this song will find itself on the playlist in many, many of the better coffee shops in this green and pleasant land.

You can tell there is deeper meaning hiding somewhere in “Mountains” and Josephine Assayech has the voice to make you want to look for it. I’m sure the classier end of the market will take this song to their heart.

“Baby Come Home” sounds upbeat and positively uplifting with plenty of real musicianship making this faintly Cajun flavoured song bounce like something from a holiday soundtrack. Helen Townsend’s voice adds the sugar on top.

Almost fey and sailing away on a sea of reverb are Eidetic Dreams with all the dream pop style boxes getting ticked over the four minute duration of their song “The Sheet”. No surprises but nonetheless atmospheric.

That seventies rock thing must be back in fashion as here comes yet another example of a band that sounds like they live on the road. Paradise Vultures throw in the existential lyrics and then add enough riffs to “Catacombs” to make it work.

Sister Envy clearly know how to ramble and their alternative rock song “Tide” rolls like it is on the road to nowhere but I suppose that is the whole point of the exercise. Atmosphere and the occasional riff nonetheless keep the song on course.

Seventies style rock moves permeate “Chalk Dust Torture” and Chris Gullace duly takes the upbeat road straight to your beer drinking heart. It’s a song for the road and probably even a song of the road. Time for another drink.

Literate to the point of becoming truly poetic, Kaia Kater demonstrates that she can successfully turn emotions into lyrics that will hold your attention. “The Witch” does indeed cast a spell on you.