Song reviews

You know its indie pop when you hear both wistful vocals and layered yet still murky guitars. Dear Boy do indie pop well and “Kelly Green” duly has little problem making its way into your affections. Especially if you wear a cardigan.

Heavily processed and sounding distinctly synthetic, “Sunshine” is nonetheless sufficiently upbeat to make you want to tap your feet. 5ON5 may have retro moves on their mind but their song isn’t stuck in the past..

An earnest pop song, “Junk Food” is catchy enough to hold the attention of your ears and Nat Dempsey does his bit with a suitably energetic vocal performance keeping those indie influences company for three minutes.

“Turquoise” tunes out to be a rather playful song with its influences drawn from the days when French pop was about as cool as you could get. Kacimi and Le SuperHomard update the sound to today but the vibe remains the same.

Delicate to the point of becoming fey, Natalie Holmes pulls together some metaphorical lyrics and some suitably wistful vocals to make “Bird Song” light enough to float amongst the clouds. A sweet and wholesome song indeed.

Josie Duncan has the kind of voice that would make you believe the world is a better place than it actually is and, with sentimentality to the fore, she duly sugar coats her song “The Wee Hours” to ensure that you want to eat it.

A rather extended and somewhat low key combination of rock moves and dancefloor beats, “Sevens” successfully shows that The Kut has more than one string to her bow. As such songs go, this one would work well on a nineties boombox.

Danjul loops “Dirty Playground” all the way into urban territory with retro style samples and repetition being used to add that essential character. Powered by the computer, this is truly the sound of a modern day pop song.

Vikki and The Gits are from Glasgow but they actually sound more like an American punk band than victims of that no mean city. “Dopamine” has decently acerbic lyrics and more melody and vocal character than you might have been expecting.

J D Allan has been about for a bit so “Kill In June” has, unsurprisingly, put the stamp of maturity upon his song with some almost obsessional lyrics keeping things well and truly on the dark side of the street.

Harmonies have always done it for me and sister duo Surely Shirley indeed do a very nice line in those sublime sibling harmonies. “Safe For Another Day” therefore sounds like a song from a bygone era but that works just fine for my ears.

Keeping it simple and layering on the grungy guitars is the way to go and Jesika von Rabbit pulls a whole pile of retro influences out of her hat to make this song simultaneously purposeful and familiar. Play loud for medicinal effect.