Song reviews

The chilled backing track to “Year of Valor!” highlights the hypnotic power of the sequencer but it is Maryam Sadeghian’s voice that add the necessary emotion to take the song out of the shadows and into the sunshine.

“So Natural” is everything but that yet credit must be given to Saigo for taking the opportunity to breakout from the sequenced imprisonment that is so often the trademark of the urban genre. The song is oblique in its presentation but there is enough jazz and Stevie Wonder seasoning to make it respectful of both the past and the present.

New York’s Nina Yasmineh clearly has more ambition than most singer songwriters and that works to the benefit of her song “Energy”. There’s plenty of anguish in her voice and that is complemented by some robust guitar work with the result having more than enough power to take the song deep into the city.

Although, on the face of it, “Swim” by Australian band Rigasaurus seems just another collection of the same old riffs weaved into a rock song format, it is saved from mediocrity by the distinctly theatrical vocals that add a disturbing sense of menace to the song.

“Memory Man” is a tidy song from a tidy British band called Juke Jaxon. There’s enough indie to make the song rock and enough soul to catch the attention of many an educated ear in search of atmosphere.

The cynical amongst you might well argue that country music satirises itself constantly but that isn’t going to stop Mimi LaRue from locking weapons on those good ole boys down in Nashville whilst taking them on a their own game . “Country Star” sounds just a like a modern day country song would yet her words suggest, with a notable lack of subtlety, that the promise of a recording contract and/or a toaster oven won’t compromise her bleached blonde feminism.

Although at first “Craters in the Atmosphere” seems no more than another chip off the indie rock block, the song is given life and independence by the pleasingly emotive vocals of Connor Robson. Worth a listen.

A song that would definitely be at home in any chill out zone, “Baby” has enough synth powered wistfulness to keep the three o’ clock in the morning audience happy until the sunrise welcomes them into a new day.

I would almost be tempted to say that there are no surprises here but that is perhaps the point of “West Coast”. Step Rockets, from Minnesota in the good old US of A, throw in a touch of keyboard powered irony but the song knows where it is going right from the start.

With the kind of intensity that will surely endear them to trendies in search of deeper meaning, Hawk tick all the urban festival boxes with “The Hunt”. The main selling point is Julie Hawk’s soaring voice that seems more of the forest than the city.

Sounds like Australia may be rather more interesting than I had thought with “Sympathy” baking a cake made of wholesome radio friendliness and topping it off with the spirted voice of the lady Iluka herself. Sugar coated quirkiness all the way through.

Soaking her song “No Last Call” in melancholy works out pretty well for Emily Rodgers with her voice, lost forever in the shadows of life, calling out triumphantly for redemption. Remarkably, this song sounds like the work of singer who actually understands country music and yet she isn’t even Nashville bound.