Song reviews

With delicate, hushed vocals of such gentleness that you would barely notice them as your ears are caressed, “Where You Are” could easily pass as a lullaby. Then, in a change of style, dear sweet, sensitive Jennifer goes a little bit country on the jolly “Conversations In My Head” just like Donna Hughes without the drawl. Whatever door she decides to knock on, I reckon she’ll be welcomed with open arms.

Pleasingly classy acoustic trio strip out Frightened Rabbit’s sound to give us a 1-2-3 of “The Things That Keep Me Here”, “Killing Time” and “Don’t Want To Hear It” with male and female vocals intertwined around the very solid and wholesome musical foundations. I doubt that you will ever find them shooting up in the toilet however but points have to be awarded for the barely suppressed sense of fun on show here. Eminently likeable.

A tough of English quirkiness is to be found here balancing Blur and Madness on top of an honest to goodness musical cake that is made up of cheeky chappies having fun. Their good natured bounciness works well on “The Horror Show” and "S.H.E.L.L.E.Y." (even if that one does sound more than a bit like “Hotel Califiornia”). “Shout It Out”, on the other hand,  is rather more ordinary but Jack Rabbit are certainly worth a listen anyway.

Ha! A ringer! No way this is a demo as it is way too slick. So slick they could be a roots version (a Scottish version, of course) of Fleetwood Mac and, with a bit of the fashionable local accents and some very neatly arranged vocals, it doesn’t take long for the nod of approval to be given to “Wild Blue” and “Down To River”. If these two songs are representative, then modern folk music has much to offer our ears. Thumbs up to Acoustic Butterfly!

Repetitive rock escapes from the confines of Stockport as “Rambling Junkie” . If you were expecting a bit of social commentary - or maybe even humour – given the title then you would be disappointed as nothing really happens to lift this band above the standard of your average big city rock band. Similarly turgid is “My My”. Maybe they are better live?

Sometimes I wonder what indie rock would sound like if it were done right.  You know – if a song were actually to have impact for reasons other than just being loud. To my ears, “Persian Eyes” sounds just like that. It’s fast but not frenetic with plenty of space left for vocalist Jonathan Taylor to show that he has the mark of distinction.  “Promenade Du Clair De Lune” drops the pace even further and burns brightly with the intensity you would expect of someone like Ray Lamontagne.  I can see this band gaining mainstream fans.

Take all your musical influences and put them in a blender and you’d probably get “That’s All I Really Want”. Andy Robinson belts it out like an entertainer should (and he probably has a career ahead of him on Saturday night television given the confidence of his delivery) but the song is just plain clumsy.

Someone is being a bit cunning here as these songs are too well produced to be demos.  Eight Feet Deep hail from New York and feature Billy 'Pills' Fridrich  on guitars and  Mike DiMeo  on vocals charging through a homage to American rock of the nineties.  “No Regrets” would sit easily over the start (or end) titles of any movie that stars Dolph Lundgren while “Throwdown” just screams big – big riffs, big vocals, big hair etc. Mr Fridich’s guitar tends to overpower everything but that is, as I recall,  the way of that particular genre.

Liked these two tracks (“Time” and “Left of Us”). Anna Searight’s voice echoes the traditions of English folk music and both songs show a notable delicacy that steps out from the usual woe-is-me singer songwriter material with “Time” impressing most despite its simplicity. Sometimes simple is enough when you have the talent to carry it off. Ms Searight has that talent.

James Gasson hails from Brighton and has apparently spent his time behind the drums or a mixing desk. He steps out front with these three songs all of which were self composed and self performed.  Apparently he lives on tea as well. The songs all run up the mainstream but are surprisingly convincing given the solo nature of their construction with “Somebody Do Something” sounding like a quirky take on the Foo Fighters and “It Must Have Been A Dream” going all moody and twisted on us.  All in all, it’s pretty clear that he takes his music seriously even if he did send this demo in an envelope decorated with cat fur.

Central Scotland is littered with sh*te indie rock bands. So much so that the government ought to fund a cull. Reckon on Casino City getting spared as they’re not sh*te.  Hiding behind Green Day influences, Stephen Henry belts it out on the bombastic cock rock that is “Sound of Demons” like he has big hair and an ego the size of a small planet. “Cobbles and Robbers” unfortunately stumbles a bit with awkward synths strolling aimlessly through the song while “Losing Streak” is probably this band’s anthem.  Smell the testosterone, baby!

Two songs here - “Wreckin’ Machine” and “Hard Times” – that prove to be straight down the line rock music that would prove popular interspersed with covers in any pub in this green and pleasant land on a Saturday night. The singer adds a touch of whiskey to otherwise sober and earnest performances.