Curiosity Shop – Crows
The debut single from Curiosity Shop, Crows, is a touching and delicately absorbing alt-folk song, opening with a gentle blend of a capella vocal harmonies before serene soothing instruments, including brushed drums and calming accordion mix with the voices before fading out again as the vocals take centre stage again to close the song.
Tina Sandwich – Dandelion (Wishing)
Tina Sandwich is one of Scotland’s finest DIY/underground live bands, their boisterous sets always a joy to behold. Their latest single dandelion (wishing) fitted perfectly into their set the last time I saw them, positioning itself as a future fan favourite. The song continues the lineage of the dynamic and punchy indie/art-rock from the 1980s & 90s that was favoured by bands like Throwing Muses, Belly, and Auf Der Maur and Veruca Salt and the loud/quiet/loud song structures of the likes of Pixies. Tilly’s instantly recognisable vocal is as vibrantly textured as ever reaching an urgent resonance at the refrain, matched in its intensity by the richly sonorous driving guitar lines.
Dropkick Murphys – Body of an American
Another taster from the Shame MacGowan tribute album, 20th Century Paddy, scheduled for a November release sees Dropkick Murphys tackle Body of an American from the 1986 EP Poguetry in Motion, adding to the songs from Bruce Springsteen, Kingfishr and a take on Haunted by Johnny Depp and Imelda May that, despite their best efforts, will never be a patch on the sublime juxtaposition of Shane and Sinead’s vocals in the original. Unsurprisingly, based on the style of the bands own music, clearly inspired by bands like The Pogues, their take on the song remains fairly true to the original. I’ll be interested to hear the rest of the songs in the album as they are revealed.
Skorts – Headrush
NYC based SKORTS acclaimed single Headrush is a glorious fusion of a smorgasbord of musical references from over the decades. At the higher end of the vocal pitch I can hear shades of dare I say, Toyah, Kate Bush & Sinead O’Connor, while musically it mixes up elements of early 80s post-punk with 90s grungy guitars alongside references to guitar lines and riffs that nod towards the likes of Radiohead and REM. Intriguing.
Hens Bens – Graham
Hens Bens bring their usual joyously chaotic blend of electro-punk to the party alongside their humorously irreverent and on point as ever lyrical observations to their take on the strange, ahem, transformation of celebrated comedy writer Graham Linehan into a hateful anti-trans troll and campaigner.
Sha Rivari & the Maybes – Doormat
The latest single from Edinburgh’s Sha Rivari and the Maybe’s is a wonderfully abrasive attitude fuelled three minutes of pure unadulterated and gloriously fierce synth-punk that will have you immediately reaching for the repeat button. The spiky cutting lyrics and vocal leave you in no doubt that they are going to be nobodies doormat as they assert their message in a cacophony of fuzzed up garage punk guitars and sonorous synth lines. Love love love.
Trashcan Sinatras – Games for the ZX Spectrum
As I’m writing this June round up in August, it is with a very different ear I listen once again to this single after the untimely tragic death of the beating heart of Trashcan Sinatras, Johnny Douglas. Games for the ZX Spectrum is packed with ardent emotion, tinged with a sense of melancholy. At its core is a passionately yearning melody underpinned with compelling acoustic guitars, and lyrics including the repeated phrase “don’t know what I’m doing any more” giving a mixture of sentiments from an air of perplexity through to a determination to persevere. The song also contains a nod to another famed Ayrshire lyrical poet, one of Scotland’s most famous sons. You can find my reflections on Ever the Optimist here.
Sinead Miren – Internal Torment
Sinead Miren takes a brake from the hard rocking metal sounds of her band Mary of Silence to create this affecting acoustic ballad, which feels like a raw and emotional opening of her heart and soul, with vocals spiralling into an increasingly desperate plea, sonically mirroring the psychological torment of the song’s title.
Andreas Gavlen – End of the Summer
As I listen to this song again I realise there is a touch of TV Smith in the voice of Andreas Gavlen, and as I listen I’m trying to remember now who recommended this song to me. I think it may have been a post on socials from Andy Smith aka Burnt Log who makes a regular appearance in these round ups. Whoever it was, I commend you as I love the heartfelt bittersweet melancholy of this piece of music and its reflectively touching lyric.
Spearmint – 1986
Spearmint’s 2019 album Are You From the Future? came late in the year, but not so late that it didn’t appear in my list of that years best albums. Their single 1986, from their new album Chase Me, reflects on a time before immediate gratification and social media, and is a vibrantly uplifting celebration of a shared love of music and the joy it brings that crosses borders and has no boundary.
Hot Tottie – Pavilion
Hot Tottie’s debut single Pavilion had me harking back to memories of short lived indie supergroup Lodger with Pearl Lowe and Danny Goffey, with their Yin and Yang vocal interplay. Pavilion has an effortlessly catchy melody, it radiates a breezy sun-drenched warmth and a spirited buoyancy.
Opus Kink – Will I Come For You?
There is an element of existential dread at the core of Will it Come for You? with Opus Kink’s signature underlying feeling of ominous menace creating a driving force rippling through the song as frontman Angus Rogers searches for some sort of meaning, his vocals switching from near whispered understatement through angsty desperation to furious venting. The album is superb, I highly recommend it…
Sugar – Keep Looping
At a Sugar show in Barrowland earlier in the year Bob Mould proved without doubt that he still has it, whatever “it” might be… well he has it in bucketloads anyway. The latest song to be added to the bands catalogue is the highly charged Keep Looping, with incendiary power pop riffing soundtracking Mould demonstrating a visceral anger as he commentates on the hold modern technology has on us, in particular the dopamine rush of constant scrolling and being caught in that never ending loop.
The Meffs – Where Did It All Go Wrong?
It certainly isn’t The Meffs it has gone wrong for as they seem to have been everywhere this year, playing support gigs, headline shows and festivals the length and breadth of the country and gathering hordes of new fans along the way, gaining much traction and raising anticipation levels for their second album, Business, due on September from whence the angry tirade of this in yer face single comes. The theme of the single, humanity’s destruction of the planet on which we live, takes on whole new significance given the heatwave and fires causing destruction and devastation across Europe which has become a more regular event closer to home.