Song reviews

Indie sentimentality aplenty from St Dukes with “Growing Up” mixing the mellow with meaning for a whole 205 consecutive seconds of loveliness. The endearing female vocals make you wish you had some ice cream to go with the song. I sigh again.

I recognise style when I hear it and Valentina has style. Hers is a bleak, introspective and distinctly downbeat style but style it is and “Hands” utilises a piano figure and hypnotic tempo changes to make me wish I was one of the cool kids.

When Did I Get Old? I can’t remember but Adam Whitehead ponders on that very subject in his song with the lyrics being distinctly decent and infused with blue collar sentimentality. Add in the Nashville style polish and country radio airplay beckons.

I can’t actually remember why I thought Leyya were another indie pop duo but “Hundred Or More” instead seems to be powered by some rather muscular sequencers with those female vocals being processed into exquisite oblivion.

“Golden” is a song is so unashamedly commercial that it practically forces you to sing along whilst waving your iPhone in the air with NATI belting out her song like the trouper she is meant to be. A true summer song.

Not being a fan of Norwegian black metal, I didn’t expect to find “Between The World” by Trelldom as rewarding as I did. This is a big song full of a brooding yet elegant mix of melancholy and menace that simply surrounds you.

You don’t get many songs that sound positive these days but “Happy Thoughts” by Natty Maxwell is one such song with the nineties urban soul influences that are clearly present in her sound making it all so easy on the ear.

Soul meets funk in the retro melting pot that was used to cook “Frank’s Zone” by Koko-Jean & The Tonics and the resulting musical stew will satisfy the appetite of those who like the sounds of simpler, and better, times. Fingersnapping good.

There’s a bit of the old retro folk rock jingle jangle to “Misty Morning” by Red Sky July and the delicate female vocals decorate the lyrics with the expected, and rather endearing, amount of sunshine harmonies. I’m feeling good now.

The sequencers are in overdrive in this one with the looped synths reinforcing the oppressive atmosphere. Raven Numan’s words follow a similar locked to an introspective loop pattern and “Overwhelming” is duly dressed in bleak black.

“Wild Card” plays out like a low key folk song transplanted from the altogether more laidback seventies with Whiskey Jack keeping his words both sentimental and just this side of laconic. There’s even some whistling thrown in.

There’s definitely some soul in those Sugar Bones and “I Feel Feelings” rolls like that seventies urban sound had never fallen out of fashion. Corrin Cruz keeps the song telling it like it is using just enough heart and emotion to convince.