Song reviews

It wouldn’t take much effort to figure out that Marie Naffah is a singer songwriter from London and her song “Gabriel” is therefore, unsurprisingly, literate and piano driven. If melancholy is your thing then this one is for you.

From Croatia, two man rock band Mechanical break out the beats and riffs to add weight to their song “Fluorescent Black”. It’s a straight down the white line rock cruncher that would go down well with beer. I know because I tried it.

You don’t get too many intelligent songs these days but “Scream Out My Lungs” is a fine example of one. Southpaw add some power pop moves and a side order of melody to help make the song more than just fast food.

Weaving her song neatly between soft rock and modern day country is Stefanie Clark Harris and “Spirit Moves” duly has the hallmark of musical maturity. Easy on the ear, destined for radio play and playlists, I like how she rolls.

Making a pretty successful attempt at filling their song “One Minute You Is” with riffs and attitude are VLLNS. The reliance on repetition moves the song straight down the centre line but their final destination isn’t, as you might expect, the stadium.

Vaughn has his finger on the pulse of the currently trendy eighties retro vibe and he duly takes his song “Miss America” for a walk down the yellow brick road to Paisley Park. I think he might even get there and claim his prize.

Kind of twee yet sufficiently strong to stand up as a song of worth, “Makeup” is infused with enough sugar free irony to render Rudy as convincing purveyors of the kind of songs that have caused the resurrection of the cassette as a physical format.

I can’t remember when I was last in a shopping mall but “I Can… If I Want To” would fit right into the soundtrack for a visit to such a place. Corrina Roppo keeps the mood upbeat and she duly made me want to buy something.

Ploughing the fields of more decadent times are Slant and their song “La Danse” plays out like the B52s on cheap cider in a sleazy nightclub. I love the smell of trash in the morning. It smells like yesterday to me and this song is duly approved.

Pleasingly parochial, Braw pull in their best harmonies to turn “Whisky in Hand” into the kind of song that will make both residents and expatriates feel suddenly sentimental about dear old Scotland. I’ll raise a glass to that.

Low key bedsit electronica is getting to be the style icon of our troubled times and Kat Duma gives us a rather melancholic addition to the playlist of the moonlight shadows. “System” has hints of a trippy dancefloor yet still generates cerebral approval.

Drift me baby and it’s one more time for Shiva and The Hazards as they resurrect the woozy sound of rock’s genesis and inject it with a fix of modern day power chord mentality. Swaying but always steady on course, “Revolution Son” takes it home.