Song reviews

If you are going to do a cover version then choose a good song and Helen Shanahan duly chooses well with her respectful take on “The Aeroplane” resonating with commercial appeal. One for both radio and television placement methinks.

One for the cool kids on a retro groove trajectory, “Curbside” follows the style cues of nineties r&b with due diligence and Laura Adeline’s laconic vocals manage to make this wistful journey into the past seem worthwhile.

“Love You Like I Did” is a wholesome song that is both robustly performed and delivered from the heart. Hannah Scott’s clever words twist emotions with earnest intent and the result exudes a delightful, almost melodramatic, sentimentality.

Whilst it may not be a style of today, you won’t go far wrong with a literate singer songwriter like Openwork and “Heroic Couplets” makes the most of metaphorical intent as if the golden days of songs with a message were here once more.

“Falling For You” is undoubtedly another finger on the pulse of modern music song and Stefanie Passione duly emotes over a stylishly robotic musical accompaniment. Methinks this will be a winner with after midnight cocktail drinker crowd.

Like all good men who have the blues in their soul, Ben Hemming takes the journey down to the crossroads with his song “Praise Me” and cuts a deal that puts him on the road to redemption. No surprises there, but his heart is undeniably in the right place.

This one is distinctly creepy – as anything to do with clowns always is – with a brooding, heavily processed rap rolling down the road whilst holding hands with looped rumblings of synthetic origin. Of course it’s theatrical. It had to be.

Curiously dropping some nearly normal musical moves into the metal onslaught that is “Chokehold”, Druid strut their strident and muscular stuff like a band whose influences go further and louder than the rock pantheon. My ears doth bleed.

An Australian punk band reinterpreting the hit grunge sound of nineties with the emphasis changed to the ironic? That’s Crash & The Crapenters for you and “Depression” does just like it says on the tin. It’s a satirical thing.

Various elements of discord are combined to make “Dorothea Tanning” into a song that manages to migrate a degree of wistfulness into the land of the loops. Boudicca's Bass Service might well be quirky but that is no bad thing in my book.

There is something about blues rock that is unmistakably organic and “She Was A Wonder” by Saverio Maccne exemplifies that very quality with his guitar providing all the heat that is needed to ignite the fire beneath the song.

Some splendidly wry lyrics elevate “He’s My Man” out of the ordinary and, with a notable degree of style also evident, Luvcat takes us on an ironically enjoyable musical diversion. Not quite a gothic murder ballad but it’s got the same postcode.