Song reviews

Unashamedly sentimental and surefootedly strolling down the middle of the road, Charlie Hole aims for the heartstrings with “Find Someone Who Cares” and hits his mark with the kind of accuracy that comes only with clean living.

It is kind odd how the past gets to seem fresh if you leave it long enough. Eckhardt and the House take the retro route to the New York of the eighties with “Funeral” and, while some might even call this song self-consciously stylish, it works nonetheless.

At last! A cover version that manages to be so much more than a copy. Anne Marie Almedal’s restrained take on The Cure’s “Lovesong” extracts maximum emotion and turns the song into something new in the process.

How about that? Rough edged indie pop powered by angst and a splash of anger just like the good old days? Thumbs up therefore to Badflower for injecting “x ANA x” with enough life to get your heart beating and your feet tapping. Anguish me now!

A song that will undoubtedly find friends in more educated circles, “Hamburg” struts out strongly for Only Yours and shows what you can do when you make more effort than most will do in these sequenced times. It’s a good one.

There is always a place in my heart for a proper pop song and Pattern Pusher duly push all the right buttons with their Britpop influenced sugary confection “Shakey”. This is a song that makes the world a better place.

Nicely drifting along in their own dream pop way are Postiljonen with their song “Chasing Stars” being as nice an example of a meandering soundtrack to your day as you are likely to get without actually being retro.

I thought I recognised her voice and it was indeed Cherrill Rae of eighties discolettes The Raes, Time has passed and she has now moved to the soul side of the street with her song “Since I Lost My Baby” reaching way past into the past for its musical goodness.

Bleak and distinctly retro, Danish electro poppers Sparkling successfully add enough arthouse pretension to get them playlist attention in the better coffee shops throughout the land and duly keep “Say Goodbye To The Ragged Tiger” one shot ahead of a latté.

An odd mix of synthetic and real, “Splash The World With your Colours” almost sounds different but doesn’t quite gel as a song with Jhenni’s voice sounding more like the result of technical tinkering than the real thing.

Once more into the past with the power punk irony of Weezer being resurrected by Bony Macaroni with their song “Piece of Shit”. Underachievement is spiritually back in fashion so this example of melody driven irony is pretty much a fashion item.

Nothing like a bit of moody electronic bleakness to start your day and Mirny Mine duly stirs up the black clouds with “Dream”. The song isn’t short of atmosphere however with the neo tribal chanting providing sufficient ear grabbing enchantment.