Song reviews

Retro electronica works for me and “Do You Want Me” by Australian duo Pines is precisely that. Elements of the dancefloor are present but sequenced with soundtrack style swooping through the sound banks for best sonic effect.

Some songs just have mist woven through them and Carolina Lee have little difficulty using said mist to turn their song “If I Try” into a wistful, and rather effective, take on viewing sentiment through the windows of a time machine.

I have to admit to liking the almost cutesy theatricality of Sohodolls and “Thread” duly sounds like the work of the villain in a stage play about falling victim to the cartoon demons of the past in the basement of a musician’s house.

You can take the man out of the blues but you can’t take the blues out of the man and, with a touch of irony, “The Blues Ain’t What It’s All Cracked Up To Be” gives David Perry the opportunity to reflect on all that was. Traditional but true.

You can’t get more lo-fi than recording on to a genuine wax cylinder and The Winter Journey do just that with the words of their song “Little Consolation” duly resonating as if they were sung by reincarnations of lost voices from the past.

Rolling down the singer songwriter road like a man with something in his heart and a song in his head, Scott Park uses melody and a lot of guitars to give “Fly Up” all this song needs for it to end up glued to your normally fatigued ears.

There’s plenty of that nineties retro sound to be found in “Oh, Love” by Echo Riders and their relentlessly upbeat approach towards taking it to the dancefloor loops around you just like it did when rhythm was the dancer.

If you keep thinking that it could happen to you then “Too Much Too Soon” by QUAD90 might well be a welcome addition to your personal soundtrack with convincing female vocals making you want to see the strobe lights in the night again.

A song of the city, Vanarin’s “My Circle” is as artificially enhanced as a song gets these days yet I reckon the cool kids will take a positive viewpoint on the song’s quirky approach to looping around the block before fading into the distance.

Some songs seem destined to make you feel all warm and cosy and “Flowers Grow In The Saddest Parts” is one such song. Silver Lake - Marleen Hoebe and Jesse Koch – add the sunshine that takes away the shadows in your day.

Flora Smith smoothly mixes intimacy into her song “Thinking Of You” with all the poise and precision that singer songwriters had back in the days when mainstream was the place to be. In other words, this song is really rather elegant.

Pleasing complex in execution, “Running” plays out with all the hallmarks of an intelligent pop song with Fredrik Svabø’s hand always steady on the tiller. Classy vocals from Thea Wang fit right into the song and make it soar.