Song reviews

“Younger Mind” might well sound like the product of a bygone age – in this case eighties electro pop – yet Sykes with the mix of those analogue synth sounds, rockstar guitar and Julia Sykes’ almost wistful voice make the song sound as fresh as today’s bread.

Emma Essinger strays away from the conventional with her song “Bang Bang” having enough oddball elements to lift it out of the Scandinavian electropop groove and into the hearts of those who appreciate something a bit different.

Balancing robotically precise percussion with the casual indifference of Kirsten Clark’s voice works out well for Canadian band Babygirl with “Overbored” successfully evoking the calm after the emotional storm and, whilst not an uplifting song, it does nonetheless have a certain hypnotic quality.

Superglu would seem to be the kind of band that like to kick it up old style with their song “Weekend” featuring the kind of roughhouse guitars and aim at the wall vocals that inevitably make for the soundtrack to a good night out

While there are still a few, no doubt deliberately applied, rough edges to “Social Politics”, London all girl band Yassassin demonstrate that there is still life in smoothing out the post punk ethos and applying it to the kind of pop song that could only have been born in a garage.

Clearly in love the groovy past, Sam Evian nonetheless turns “Sleep Easy” into a song that people of taste might choose to remember when they are making up their party playlists for those long summer nights.

Maria Kelly has enough inherent quirkiness to make a song like “Black & Blue” interesting yet she can still sound like the kind of songstress that BBC Radio 6 might describe as the next big thing. Easy to like and pleasing to the ear – that’s what she is.

Full on seems the way that Chicago band Rakunk roll and their song “Trillionaire” holds a steady course towards the stadium with the band’s electro rock influences and Jonathan McIntire’s tireless voice providing the fuel that will get them there.

The rock machine rolls on and “Bad Man” is as good an example of what you get when you mix volume with a bad attitude as you are likely to find this week. I wouldn’t mess with these girls.

A robust example of retro power pop from a band that I had thought long gone, “But I’m Scared” isn’t likely to scare the charts into submission but those who remember the days when a song was more than a sequenced sample will no doubt find something to love here.

“Attack of the Glam Soul Cheerleaders” ticks all the boxes for a summer pop song with its sub three minutes duration, a singalong chorus and gleefully innocent feel. The production throws in anything and everything but who cares when Ette have a song that is actually likely to make you smile.

Synth pop will never die and the genre influences are prevalent in Grip Tight’s “Never Enough” with the robotic beat, analogue synth sounds and the posturing vocals easily evoking memories of the mascara days of the eighties.