Song reviews

I like a bit of tempo shifting in the morning and Ding Mao satisfied my appetite for music that shapeshifts and takes sharp, if theatrical, turns down the alleyway to somewhere that isn’t really anywhere. “More” indeed.

Having the blues is no bad thing when it comes to music and Hubert Dorigatti does not disappoint as he duly infuses his song “Cold Cold Heart” with all it needs to get by. A traditional approach but worthy nonetheless.

Hot Lobby have the riffs necessary to make a rock song and “Vampire” is duly a rock song even if there is an underlying danceability that eventually gets derailed by some almost theatrical tempo changes. Interesting nonetheless.

Some might say that singing any song in French adds style and sophistication and they would appear to be correct based on Marie Minet’s immensely civilised yet still emotionally involving “Dis Papa”. Class is where it is at once again.

Raucous and robustly performed,” Have A Pint” isn’t likely to be mistaken as music by Mozart as Cowboy Hunters stomp out the soundtrack to the street where you don’t want to live. That said, if suitably inebriated, this rock rap hybrid will make your night.

Maybe they still make them like they used to as Glasgow’s Jamie Button demonstrates with his song “Some Nights”. Indie rock may well flow through his veins but he has the heart to take this song all the way across the bridge.

Going the distance comes easily for Lucy Kruger &. The Lost Boys and “Damp” duly reinforces their artistic credentials. The song is indeed theatrical but it is nonetheless five minutes and thirty seven seconds well spent.

I will award Amy Hopwood additional points for adding a degree of production quirkiness to her song “Breadcrumbs” to thus lift it clear of the traditional expectations of the folk genre and that’s more than enough to pique my musical curiosity.

I like a bit of art pop in the morning and “Itch” by Kee Avil is undoubtedly that with an echoing piano and obtuse lyrics suggesting that the theatre is where Kee Avil lives her artistic life. I would be happy to see her in the spotlight any day.

Solid jingle jangle pop from Monogroove with “Back To School” having enough sunshine between its chords to make you think you are hearing a song in the soundtrack to a teen movie from the days when such things were in every cinema.

An odd one this, “The Envy of Venus” sounds way too complex for a song of today and perhaps Aka Belle are actually the ghosts of some band lost in the late sixties that have been resurrected for our listening pleasure. Anyway, this one works for me.

Switching between brooding synthesisers and ethereal interludes probably serves some greater artistic purpose for Darkplace yet their song “Maran” still sounds like it should be part of the soundtrack to some distinctly bleak movie.