Amy MacDonald - This is the Life (2007)

Tracklist:
1. Mr Rock 'n Roll
2. This is the Life
3. Poison Prince
4. Youth of Today
5. Run
6. Let's Start a Band
7. Barrowland Ballroom
8. L.A.
9. A Wish for Something More
10. Footballer's Wife



A Young Scottish Guitar Girl with Talent – 7,5/10

Back in 2008, it was very hard not to have heard of Amy MacDonald. Her big hit “This is the Life” was played to death on every radio station and no matter where you were, you were bound to at least here her name. At such a point, it is impossible to ignore the release of her promising debut album, released a year before the single under the same name. The question you will ask yourself at first listen is: will this be a one-off artist or will she come back strongly on her next album?

Amy MacDonald herself is playing the acoustic guitar and mostly bases her songs on what she figures out on that very instrument. This keeps the overall ambience very acoustic, even though the electric guitar regularly bumps in for additional accompaniment. Her voice sounds quite raw and relatively low for a female voice. This whole combination of acoustic elements and this rough alto voice sounds quite unique and differ her from most pop bands and artists, and above all distances her from all the other female solo artists such as Beyoncé, Rubyn or Lady Gaga by not adding elements of R&B. Add a good amount of catchy chord progressions, upbeat rhythms and tempting arrangements and you’ve got a #1 album, which is exactly what this album was destined for. The album opens with the swinging “Mr Rock ‘n Roll”, which is a perfect introduction to MacDonald as a singer. Her voice sounds very powerful as she reaches for the higher notes. Her trademark type of song must be the four-chord acoustic indie rock tracks like “Poison Prince”, “This is the Life” and “Let’s Start a Band”. These tracks are all uplifting in both the drums and the vocals, but sound a bit similar as well, which is something MacDonald needs to watch out for. There are some very powerful ballads like “Youth of Today” or “Footballer’s Wife” with lyrics that sound a bit oddly critical towards certain types of people, but it’s not disturbing.

The downside of the album is the compactness of all the tracks. While some tracks are really outstandingly performed, it’ll always remain very compact as most of it is just intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end. Sometimes I could use some more listeners challenge in the songs, but of course, one cannot expect that from simple pop music. Overall it’s highly recommended to fans of the genre.

Strongest tracks: “Mr Rock ‘n Roll” and “Footballer’s Wife”.
Weakest tracks: none.