Song reviews

Once more into the breach dear friends as Josefin Öhrn + the Liberation takes us on a walk through the alleyways of melancholy with “Always So Bright”. Give the song some time though and its initial black cloud will dissipate into the bright sunlight so beloved of the evangelist. Let us walk up the mountain!

It seems Scandinavian pop is unstoppable these days with Sirena’s “Lunar Lights” being yet another example of a song carefully sculpted into ear candy for the smarter than average consumer. Like Bourneville chocolate, this song is both dark and smooth.

So lightweight it might possibly float, “Wild Sisters” makes the most of its folk influences whilst providing further proof that The Birdman Rallies should be heroes to beard scratchers everywhere. Song sung thoughtfully, as it were.

You can’t go far wrong with soulful funk and that, fortunately, is a style that Soulnaturals can do in their collective sleep with Gloria Pryce keeping the words real and the heat turned up throughout “I Never Knew A Hell Like You”. This song is testifying to the 100% natural beat.

A rough and ready Glasgow duo, Velvet Bomb put up two fingers to subtlety and grind it out loud and proud instead. “Bullet to the Brain” is the kind of bare bones badass muck ’n’ roll song that deserves to be spun mercilessly at 45 rpm.

Being a moody synth pop duo from Sweden, it is perhaps no surprise that White Birches tackle weightier subjects in their words than most. Jenny Gabrielsson’s solemn vocals decorate “It’s A Hollow World” as if to accuse us all of guilt which, in the context of the song, seems like the right course of action.

Beset with both melancholy and reverb, Liza Anne nevertheless shakes off her downbeat sonic afflictions to make “Room” the kind of song that gets you the second time around. She’s from Nashville so she was never really going to stray very far from the mainstream but, that said, there is no doubting she has got the heart to go places.

Seemingly driven by a desire to create atmosphere, Franklin, from deepest Englandshire, fail to notice that they are struggling with a barely serviceable song and yet I feel they deserve credit for gamely stretching “Cold Heart” out to the six minute mark. There’s persistence for you.

“Silence Myself” is a song made up of little more than minimalist electro and attitude. That said, Fable’s emotive approach to the art of singing subsumes the hypnotic simplicity of the song into the conventions of cabaret leaving your ears duly filled with melancholy.

A back to basics song, “Bedsit” proceeds with determination along the post punk trail pausing only at Pete Shelley’s house to load up with some lyrical inspiration. That wry humour serves The Rusbies well however and their beer drinking honesty also shines through. “Bedsit” is, without a doubt, a Friday night song.

If you have six minutes of your time going spare then you could do worse that spend it in the company of Chicago’s Crown Larks. “Blood Mirage” rambles with merciless magnificence, a flagrant disregard for fashion and insolent untidiness on a journey down Manzarek drive towards the inevitable car crash ending. My head hurts like Beefheart and its not even sunrise.

Throwing themselves, with some vigour, backwards into the time of rock ‘n’ roll, Glasgow’s The Black Denims snap their style fingers, slick back their hair and swagger through “Obviously” like a band on a mission. Unless my ears deceive me, they are made of all natural ingredients too with a right on the money horn section keeping these tired ears interested. May the force be with them and, should the force also be with you, the song is available from Bandcamp.