Song reviews

Anaklav mercilessly loops the super cool into the disco meets house beats of “Hello Darling” with the result liable to induce maximum pleasure in the ears of the dance until dawn crowd. Not just for the dancefloor either as this one also has BMW driver appeal.

Rosellas walk the indie rock walk with some confidence and their song “Come Alive” even stretches their reach into the true rock arena by the simple expedient of including a decent guitar solo. All in all, not a bad effort.

Techno will never die, or so it seems, but the passing of time has given SHSHA the chance to polish those metronomic beats until they shine like a diamond. “Hyperphoria” is wordless, as you might expect but the beat goes on until the dawn.

“Enough of Your Love” exudes redolence and this laidback rock song successfully weaves grungy guitars and enticing female vocals into a song that sneaks up on you. The Wanes are from Nashville but this, fortunately, isn’t country.

Brooding electronica from Paradise Guerilla with the looped beats of “Intoxicated” roaming through the big city streets on the hunt for the ghosts of the past while classy female vocals interject with style. This one is for the cool kids.

“No More Waitin’” isn’t the kind of song to catch you by surprise and Vicious Kitty are the kind of band that know how to make the kind of music that goes well with beer on a Friday night but there’s a guitar solo in there so that works for me.

Another laid back song with, this time, Sara Lew moving her song “Shady Light” along at a leisurely pace whilst leaving plenty of space for listener contemplation. Her guitar leads and her languid vocals follows those chords to a mist covered nirvana.

An exercise in minor chord laconicism, “Last Time” is targeted at the urban coffee shop with Hunter & Wolfe’s downbeat lyrics leading the listener all the way to a piano break and something akin to a big chorus. If indie retro were a thing, this song would be it.

“Little things” has that laid back, post-midnight vibe with the shuffling electro beats and the wistful vocals combining to make a perfect soundtrack for a nighttime drive in your (hybrid) car. M.Rider knows where she is going with this one.

There will always be a place for a sentimental song and “Just Hold On” is such a song with Nico Ev singing sweetly all the way through it. The musical accompaniment may be sparse but her suitably expressed emotions fill the spaces nicely.

A solid reinvention of the brooding retro synth pop sound from Stirling band Transmission Suite with their laconically delivered song “Part of the Problem” looping the click track just like they used to do back in the bleak eighties.

Ironic in that distinctly British way, Diamond Country Dance Club steer their song “I Wanna Work in a Supermarket” straight along the river to sardonic nirvana. I’d call this song intelligent power punk and I would, as always, be right.