Song reviews

As Michael Cooke is from Glasgow, I suppose it would have been unreasonable to expect a happy song and “Losing My Mind For Nothing” duly rolls the downbeat emotions into a guitar powered indie vibe. Worthy if not shiny.

All those fashionable indie rock moves from the past are regenerated and infused by Irish band Magazines into their song “Happy Alone”. The lyrics have a downbeat edge but there is something endearingly wistful about the vocals that encourages repeat plays.

Kima Otung has her finger on the pulse of modern day urban music with “If Nobody Told You” ticking all the Spotify playlist style boxes. With that said, she has nonetheless injected enough of her own character into this short song to lift herself above the competition.

Directionless grunge can find its way across any room and You Will Flood The River duly use strangled guitars, psyched out vocals and general untidiness to shine the light of yesterday on their lo-fi musical message. I smell the smoke.

Downbeat and laden with guitar grunge, Mise En Scene nonetheless lay down a solid four on the floor track in “Dollar Dreams”. It’s a heart on the sleeve song that ticks all the late night listening in the car boxes. Hear and believe.

“Fire and Flame” runs slowly but surely to its conclusion giving Sabina Chantouria plenty of time to play all the traditional cards that get those who like a bit of emotional drama with their music into their happy place. And it is therefore so.

Oddly compelling, “Dreamer” shows that wistful still has a place in modern day music and that Dancer can scale up beyond their influences to make a song that fits right into your ears. It’s alt-pop but rather good nonetheless.

Some might see “Paradigme” as just an exercise in style but La Femme are from France so such a thing is to be expected. Think Kraftwerk translating their thing into electroswing whilst drinking expensive cocktails. A song for the good life.

Some songs just seem borne of dystopia and, indeed, “Frozen Pizza” is one such song. LINN drifts her words and music into lo-fi looped square holes as if to provide a soundtrack to those who have woken up and found themselves in an open prison.

“Glory” plays like an excerpt from the kind of musical that should get a government grant in these miserable times with Ben Seals throwing his all into the song with gloriously camp fervour. It’s a showtune for our times.

Is there such a thing as a thinking man’s singer songwriter these days? Crawford Mack certainly appears to be one with “Firing Squad” having the sensitivity and scale to give his poetic words resonance. Not upbeat but uplifting nonetheless.

Almost thinking this song was a plastic cousin to glam rock but the swirling shadows Bryony Williams adds to “Knockin’” provide more than enough propulsive power to achieve orbit over plant Earth. Grumbling, stumbling and yet speaking sense.