Song reviews

Locked into lo-fi mode, Bunkhouse and their drum machine take a walk on the retro electropop side to find the inspiration for “RIP.ie” and come back with a shopping trolley full of wonky words, ironic harmonies and stray chords. Smack me now.

This song felt kind of cuddly. Softly sung and holding a staunchly acoustic course, Katrina Cain leads us, with her song “Independence Day”, on a journey from yesterday straight to the heart of the matter. A song worthy of a sigh.

All songs aren’t happy songs and “Part of Life” most certainly isn’t a happy song with a brooding melancholy pervading its entire length. As you might therefore expect, Methoxy goes deep with her words to keep her song on its chosen track.

Not being a fashion guru, I don’t know if laidback is the new black but, if that should indeed be the case, “Ochre” would make a perfect soundtrack to smoky musings on the meaning of life. Goon me one more time and pass the herbal tea.

Joe Normal strikes out once more for the main road with another blue collar anthem that goes by the name of “Summer Jobs” putting the tiger in his tank. It’s an upbeat song that features alcohol and cigarettes so sing along. You know it makes sense.

There is no doubting that “Ce Poème” is powered by a convincing, if French style, solid urban groove yet M Unknow chooses to disguise his own lyrical abilities with the use of excessive vocal processing that serves only to dilute his message.

She’s got the classic late eighties urban soul sound down to a tee and “Hearts In A Cage” duly highlights Natalie Duncan’s natural ability to keep it classy. The song suits her and she suits the song and you can’t get better than that.

Broke Royals pull their motivations from the great American rock playlist and clearly know how to keep things on the right track and there is duly little difficulty in classifying “All I Have To Show” as a sturdy song. Blue collar and proud of it.

“Baker Miller Pink” rolls like a song borne of the city and Sofie Boyer walks the tightrope between buoyancy and deeper purpose with both poise and assurance. Without a doubt, it’s a commercial song and none the worse for that.

You can truly feel Son Of The Descent’s determination to keep their song “Roomful Of Heroes” firmly on the lo-fi track with the grey vocals, instrumental fog and ten bob looped beats painting a sonic picture that has no sunshine in it whatsoever. It’s deep.

It takes a lot to make anything that might fit into the Americana genre cool yet that is what Monica Queen has done with “Why Not Your Baby” and her, rather unique, voice casts a spell that makes the song resonate far beyond its simplicity. I sigh once more.

What would a protest song sound like these days? Perhaps it would be powered by brooding electronica and have words that drift between the purposeful and the fanciful? If so, “Swaying Pelvises” by Elenne May might well be one.