Song reviews

“Song For A Baby Girl” was bound to be all fluffy and sentimental and thus ideally suited for the indie pop treatment but this time a professional polish has been skilfully applied by Cassandra Kubinski and the result is predictably inspirational.

A rather appealing hybrid of urban moves and sensitive singer songwriter sentiments gives Anjulie the wings to fly “FUYL” high above the clouds of mediocrity. If she has more songs like this, I reckon that the sun will shine on her for a very long time.

Keeping it simple sometimes works. Rory K takes that approach with “Heat Thru Your Body” using repetition, loops and street talk to fill its sub three minute timeslot. Fortunately, he has also added enough sunshine to make you smile.

Can a song be brutal yet endearing? It can if Lil White Bitch are behind it. Looped into an old school electro groove, “Rock Music” has more attitude and sheer angularity than a song of these antiseptic times should have. Put the needle in the - cough - groove!

Rigidly insistent, “Frei” shows that the power of the synthesiser should not be underestimated especially when combined with the dressed in black Schwarzschild floor stomping attitude. This song will assimilate you into their ways.

“Throwaway” concentrates all the Lazy Queen energy into three and a bit minutes of raucous musical intent. Subtle it isn’t, so best played loud. In fact, best played very loud indeed. It’s that kind of song.

I've got ears everywhere so I hear everything including this version of "Pocketful of Rainbows" by Jailhouse Jock. Balancing laconic minimalism with the Elvis forever in glitter vibe gives the song a quirky charm.

Some songs just sound big and this was indeed true of “Aros Am Byth” by YNYS with insistent synthesisers and impassioned vocals sweeping the song along on a journey through retro land on the way to nirvana. Vast!

I almost wrote off “It Could Be Like This” as another ska flavoured song for the upcoming summer season but Bobo & The Demeraras instead demonstrate unexpectedly sordid intent in this cautionary tale of late night misadventures.

White boy – or girl – soul is a popular musical style these days and Soë Blue steps onfidently on to the telling it like it is stage with her song "Karma". Her voice easily hits the mark and the arrangement is big enough to encourage commercial success.

Kind of intriguing this one. “There’s Nothing In It” is looped to the max yet still manages to generate enough in the way of motivational power to make you hit the repeat button. An unassuming song perhaps but Lazerine make it work.

Super cool female vocals and hard edged guitars are merged into a supersonic musical confection by Double Françoise. “Les Bijoux” is the kind of song that could only be the product of France and, indeed, Double Françoise are French. Très bon!