Song reviews

Jessica Woodlee must surely be a big city girl on the evidence of “T.O.M.L“and, with her finger firmly on the pulse of coffee shop society, she successfully uses urban angst and some bad boy riffs to take her song towards radio nirvana.

You know the music business is in a sorry state when the best song of the week is a gospel one. Robert Hawkin’s tones down the God references enough to highlight that the fact that he has the talent to fill his song “Things Will Work Out” with soul. I hear and believe.

No idea who Garrett Paknis is but he sounds like an escapee from the dancefloor with “Bad Behaviour” echoing around the VIP lounge like a sleazy slice of Pet Shop Boys reinvention remixed for post-midnight socialisation. It’s a style thing.

As usual, it is back to the nineties for Bony Macaroni and “Hollow” is, once again, a neatly constructed and executed song that pulls all those Weezer references back out of the ether and puts them to singalong use. Time to turn the radio on!

Clever lyrics reference everything you’ve heard before yet it that, almost ironic, polish that gives undeniable ear appeal to the Nashville radio friendly “Mixtape” and Gabrielle Metz clearly knows how to make it all sound sincere. Commercial, it is.

I like a bit of torment in the morning and Lloyd’s House have added enough angst to “Heather” to napalm the upbeat out of your morning. The lo-fi vibe glues the song together nicely though and it is, accordingly, a decent use of three minutes of your life.

“How It Is” rolls like a tribute to the sunshine predecessors of the post punk sound with the endearing female vocals providing enough sugar to sweeten the sound yet there is something altogether modern about the way Bo Milli takes it to the bridge. Bim Bam!

I like it when the groove gets groovy. West Lothian band The Tropicanas start up their song “Pop Snuff It” and drift it on to the groove highway to magically overtake their dreampop and loungecore influences. Mellow fruitfulness indeed!

Bourbon House clearly keep the seventies rock playbook close to their collective heart and “Resonate” duly ticks the boxes for muscular riffs and powerhouse female vocals. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to drink beer. Lots of beer.

Modern Christian music doesn’t usually rev my engine, yet Heistheartist pulls something urban and offbeat out of the style bag to make “Parted Waves” less of a Stepford sermon and more of a spiritual revelation that has made it to the sunshine.

That Nashville sound pervades “This Ain’t That” and, as you might therefore surmise, the song is both smoothly produced and lyrically sharp. Brenda Cay has the voice to make the words seem real so radio playlisting in pickup truck country is assured.

The day of the acoustic singer songwriter has yet to pass and, even with some additional accompaniment, “6 Feet Away” is unmistakeably a singer songwriter song. Lacey Cains keeps the words neat and tidy but the song escapes anyway.