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I’m Pushing Sorrow Away From My Life

Loto “So Happy Together” – No, this isn’t a cover of the Turtles classic. Loto are a trio from Portugal who specialize in 80s-flavored dance pop, but this song, with its sunny, laid-back pool-side sound is a slight deviation from their regular formula. Like most of the best chart pop from the 80s, “So Happy Together” draws heavily on 60s soul and r+b influences, and as a result sounds much more melodically rich and dynamic than the rest of their material. This song, along with a few others on their new LP The Club hint at a potential that they may be just about ready to grow into, but for right now, they’ve got a pretty hot single that’s just waiting to break.

Snowden “Kill The Power” – Hats off to Snowden, for pulling off about five or six different “oh man, what song is that from?” indie-rock moves in this four-minute song without seeming dull or overly derivative. There’s a nice driving, physical sensation to this song, mostly due to some particularly strong Steve Shelley-esque drumming and the good compositional sense to build the song’s dynamics around that percussion part. As with Loto, Snowden’s debut doesn’t sound like a fully-formed band, but this song (along with a fantastic cover of the Zombies “Time Of The Season” available on their website) proves that they have the chops and songwriting skills to eventually evolve into something far greater.