Song reviews

Pop songs. Where are all the pop songs? Well, here’s one with “If Your Arms Are Empty” by Third Cut spinning round – at a virtual 45rpm – all the way to the chorus. If this is not the sub three minute song for the summer I don’t know what is.

Heading straight down the centre line of the hard rock highway are Dali Van Gogh and their song “Wicked Way” has enough octane to keep them going all night long. Naturally, there is a guitar solo. A song like this needs a guitar solo.

Swooping synthetically on the loop is Thibault Eskalt yet his song “Animal Emotif” exudes a degree of style that lifts it well above the sequenced mediocrity of the usual dancefloor escapees. Definitely one for the cool kids.

No doubt about it. “Will To Survive” is an anthemic take it to the chorus every time kind of song that will bring joy to the ears of rock festival people who live for that kind of thing. Needless to say, Around 7 also have loud guitars.

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.