Song reviews

An easy rolling rock song, as they used to say back in the seventies, “Loving You From The Start” shows that Amazon Blonde know how to mix musical fluency with conventionality. However, the rather familiar lyrics don’t give the female vocalist much to work with but she nonetheless gamely goes for gold anyway.

Essentially, and probably cosmologically, low key, Left rummage through the streets like urban folksters armed with a laptop and a sense of isolation for company. Downbeat certainly, but their appeal should exceed the boundaries of the headphones permanently on brigade.

An Argentinian rock trio with a sound grasp of what is expected of a band in their genre, Fear Me December keep it both low key and muscular all the way through “Good bye to You” with the restrained, almost girlish, vocals of Lintu Doll adding a twist of lemon to their cocktail.

Laidback soft rock is still a soft spot in the affections of many people and it is they who will best appreciate the emotional drama that Butch Walker brings to “Bed On Fire”. So if they are you, pull up the collar on your battered leather jacket for it is cold outside.

“Trouble” is a mid-paced and inoffensive example of Scandinavian style electro pop that looks inward for musical energy and finds that someone forgot to charge the battery.

Mixing the ethereal with the primitive may not be unusual in the world of folk music but it is in the post rock world so “Hush” therefore demonstrates that Hawk do not lack courage in their musical endeavours and, like so many things classed as beautiful, this fragile song crumbles into nothing at the end.

It is the time of year for sentimentality and Jim Byrne is the man to serve it up between slices of wholemeal bread. “For We Are Born” is, however, a song rather darker than you might expect with the underlying message more akin to Leonard Cohen than Bing Crosby. No doubt about it though, Val Doonican would have appreciated the irony in that and taken this song as his own. The song is available for download from Bandcamp.

Although outwardly lightweight indie folksters, In All Honesty are the proud possessors of altogether weightier lyrics with “Heroin For My Heart” embracing obsession in a manner that would suggest a world view more appropriate to the streets of New York.

Duplodeck serve up a song of fuzzy lazy summer indie pop goodness that will likely make you think you are on a beach somewhere. “Saint-Tropez” is the name of the song and it is infused with both sunshine and lo-fi grooviness. The sunglasses are on.

“Oh Brother” is like shooting up with pure melancholy and MaryLeigh Roohan, complete with plaintive voice and a poetic approach to the creation of downbeat lyrics (“…liquor is quicker than learning to care”), succeeds in touching even the coldest heart with her song. If she were a country, I would be using my passport right now.

With the cold nights now upon us, Jamie Flett uses “Giant Squid” as the means to navigate us towards the happy heart of the spring. Part folk, part psychedelic and all the way deep, this song shows that Mr Flett’s musical maturity is no flash in the pan. Available from Bandcamp.

Offbeat and minimalist almost to a fault, Is Tropical take the European approach to making that electro groove dance after dark. “Crawl”, therefore, will cross the channel without need of a ferry. An export drive in the making? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.