Song reviews

I like a bit of quirkiness in the morning (and evening) and Mary Hennessy duly twists things just a bit out of shape and thus gives her song “Teeth” the bite it needs. It’s the perfect montage song.

Kind of grungy and full of what sounds like deliberate distortion, “Silver Thread” scrapes the wall with its sonic abrasiveness. Nonetheless, there is a guitar solo and Anna’s Bones do kick the chorus out of the park so the song is one for me.

Los Angeles band take the turn for the mainstream freeway with their song “Extraordinary” maintaining the legal limit for its four and a half minute journey and Janelle Barreto having the sense to drive the song safely and considerately.

I seem to remember that Caragh once sang the saddest song that she who stabs had ever heard. “Bones of You” also successfully evokes a similarly sentimental response if from a rather more mature perspective. A most elegant and emotional song.

Romi O walks a fine line between looped rigidity and outright quirkiness with her song “M2M” having an oddball vibe that encourages curiosity regarding the rest of her musical output. Maybe not radio material yet distinctly interesting.

Alex Rapp goes all deep and reflective with “Ego” and, with sequencers and synthesisers supporting her, the mood is set for drama in a most stylish way. Curiously, I liked this song a lot better the second time I heard it.

Thoroughly downbeat, “Inexorcisable” spirals into the shadows with fair degrees of both poise and purpose. Damien Done isn’t, of course, in the business of making you smile but his words are always worthy of a pause to ponder.

Literate in that festival friendly way, Lisa Humber confidently takes her song “The Space Between” for a walk from her heart to yours with radio friendliness clearly in her gameplan. It’s a big city coffee shop song without a doubt.

You won’t find any references to kittens or bunny rabbits in any of Defiant’s songs and “Ignite The Sky” duly keeps to their chosen lyrical path with their rock meets metal nihilism nonetheless proving particularly effective when combined with beer.

The big ballad surreptitiously returns in the guise of “Waves” and J Edna Me duly amplifies the emotions with minimal piano and maximum swooping synths helping her take the song all the way from chorus to bridge. It’s a big one.

I’m sure you (like me) know class when you hear it and “What I Didn’t Tell You” is just that. The vibe is nineties neo soul meets post-midnight jazz and Elia Orson’s voice poise and elegance will convince even jaded ears of the need to listen.

Almost diffident in its untidiness, “Lemme Go” struts along the street to the sixties. The song sounds murky and, with little in the way of poetic lyrics, it is wonder that it works at all. But it does and that, methinks, is the Alien Tango magic.