Song reviews

Retro rock from The Orphaned Bee with vocoder style vocals, synthesiser loops and solid drumming powering “Rain” and serving as a reminder of what rock metamorphosed into after the excesses of the seventies.

Heast hotwire the punk steamroller and, with steroid fuelled guitar riffs aplenty, they take their song “Did They Ever Find Out Who Let The Dogs Out?” for a joyride. Naturally, this song begs to be played at volume whilst drinking beer.

All fluffy and bouncy, Kat Greta’s song “Summer Daze” sounds like it would be the on the perfect soundtrack for a trip to the beach. Some might even call this a song for better times and, for those four minutes, even I would do just that.

“Harry Dean Stanton” may be 100% eighties retro but when The Armory Show stars big hitters like Richard Jobson and Scottish guitar god Martin Metcalfe then that retro bandwagon simply refuses to be derailed.

“Fever” might well be looped to the point of danceability yet there is something warm and appealing about Foley that transcends the merciless processing and induces positive vibes. Plastic but not pointless.

Some songs just pummel their way into your head and “Ketchup” by La Sécurité does just that. The song has urban minimalism, nearly indecipherable female vocals and an infusion of that disconcerting feeling of being in the wrong basement at the wrong time.

I would normally run from any song as robotically looped to the beat as “Advance” by Gates of Light yet the quintessential intoxication that is the voice of Louise Quinn led me to believe that the Queen of Cool was also a diva of the dancefloor.

This is more like it with down and dirty guitars aplenty propelling “Reptilian Royalty” along the highway to hell just like it always should be. Electric Children, and the delightfully named Jesika von Rabbit, burn rubber with this one.

Another day, another Christian song. This time it is “My God Is Amazing” by Mack Holland. Naturally, the lyrics are deadly earnest and Mack Holland’s delivery is also deadly earnest in that way that Christian music tends to be these days.

Full of sharp angles and post punk energy, “Itchy” by Italian band Leatherette struts down the street of your city with purpose and much in the way of edgy guitars as accompaniment. Beer and volume will make this song work like it should.

The ways of the acoustic singer songwriter are often seasoned with sentimentality and “Hush” by Kathy Muir duly does not disappoint with her special sauce being the poise and literacy she adds to her recipe. One for the heart.

I would normally like to crush this one as “Everybody Prays” is undoubtedly a Christian song yet, in the troubled times of today, we all need something uplifting to listen to and Elvis Francois certainly has the voice to convince even unbelievers.