Love, Susan - Alive

Hear The Track Here

My final review of this month is also from the UK, this time from Dundee in Scotland, Love, Susan is a five piece band who - should you happen to live in the area - are a live gigging band and judging from what I hear, they would be well worth a visit to see live. What? I know you think I am interested because it's a woman, but seriously, Love Susan are a cut above the average. Put it like this, whenever I am rounding out a month of reviews it comes as some comfort that the last track I have to handle is as good as Alive is. It does exactly what it says on the tin, if you know what I mean..

I feel ALLLLLLIIIIIVVVVVVVEEEEEEE...

If I were being honest, reviewing as much as I do is often more of a slog than a joy but once, just once in a while along comes a track that makes it all worthwhile and Alive is one of those tracks. The sort of music that leaps out of the speakers and gives you a great big feelgood hug. All five members of the band have put in long service at the musical coal face and their music has that hard edge of commercial credibility that often comes with (ahem) 'paying your dues'. Much more to the point, though, as good as the music is (and it is), what lifts it most are the vocal and songwriting talents of the aforementioned Susan - Susan McCathie (a Royal Academy of Music student in her time).

She is the main driving force here but it would be criminal not to name the other musicians involved because they all - each and every one of them - do a splendid job of fleshing out Susan's musical vision. Ed Muirhead, Kris Boyd, Gary McQueen and Bruce Langlands are all local musicians, and very accomplished ones too. Alive is a track from the band's first EP Look in the Mirror which has just been released and if this track is any indication this is definitely a Must Have EP. Right from the very first note Alive impressed me with it's warmth of sound, and blew me away when Susan started to sing. It's an incredibly commercial track that deserves to be heard simply as an example of how good it can get. Definitely a great find for me, that's for sure.

MUST HAVE love drop.