Song reviews

Double neato and coffee shop friendly, “SOS” stays close to the expectations of polite synth pop society yet, if you listen closely, Ena Mori has surreptitiously inserted a splash of subversion and duly turned her song towards the stars.

While it is your basic loop and roll approach that Edinburgh’s Slim Wrist use to kick start their song “The Soft” into motion, there is something hypnotic and endearing about the way they do the things they do. Robots have hearts too.

Both super smooth and endearingly electronic in style, Julia D’Angelo right clicks with the mouse of good taste and selects the option to turn her song “Point of View” into ear candy. Once more I feel the urge to emote the sigh of approval.

If a song could indeed be mean and moody then “Sinistry” would be that song. Cascading guitars and tormented man vocals swirl on top of the mix as if to provide further proof that “Miirrors” are ready to take their place in meaningful rock playlists.

Almost a guilty pleasure, “The Return” gives Sleep Signals the opportunity to import a whole bundle of melodic metal moves into their distinctly theatrical oeuvre. Crank it up and you feel an inexplicable urge to wear mascara (but in a robustly stylish way).

Those proven retro analogue synth sounds provide Fluo Sobre with the means to turn “Je t’attends” into something hypnotic with the sultry voice of Ljuba De Angelis emoting the lyrics in the French equivalent to siren enticement.

Starless buys a ticket to Never Never Land and duly sends her song “No No No” on its way into a world of pastel colours, sequenced loops and grey shadows. Without a doubt, this is a journey inwards but the audience for this song will feel synchronicity with her pain.

Agreeably untidy, Molosser CRUDE use their two up musical abilities to bang the drum and strum their overdriven guitar in honour of the ghost of the early days of rock. Primitive perhaps but "Bye Bye Grace" is worthy of a listen at maximum volume.

Some might be surprised at how close Nico EV has come to duplicating the sentimental side of the modern Nashville sound but this girl from Glasgow has always had the gift of applying gloss to all her songs and “Oh My Love” is further proof of that.

I suppose that, in these troubled times, it should be no surprise that the subject of a song would be of darker things and Subatomic Strangers duly go sugar free with their song “Special Satellite.” It’s a low key approach but they make their point.

“Blood Wolf Moon” sounds like it has fallen out of a (better) time with those indie sentiments meshing in with bleak synthpop sounds. If anyone can successfully do deathpop on this side of the pond it would be Vulture Party and indeed they do.

Sugary sentimentality powers “Colour Me” and, with all the precision of the best pop songs, Alex Amor tugs at the heartstrings that we all wish we had. Radio friendly in a delightfully dreamy way, this song is candy floss to the ears.