Tracklist:1. Don't Tell Me That It's Over
2. Spark
3. I Got No Roots
4. Love Love
5. An Ordinary Life
6. Give It All Up
7. My Only One
8. This Pretty Face
9. Troubled Soul
10. Next Big Thing
11. Your Time Will Come
12. What Happiness Means To Me
The ‘Difficult’ Second Album – 7,2/10
In modern popular music it’s quite hard to stay alive. After a very successful first record, it’s is absolutely necessary for your second to be a smash as your survival in the music industry depends on it. So what did Amy MacDonald do after her debut album This Is The Life? Did she just continue to do more of the same or did she succeed in her struggle to survive? Where one might’ve expected her to do the former, it’s the latter that she actually did.
When you say Amy MacDonald, you say acoustic pop/folk guitar girl. This album totally changes that image. While she, surprisingly, wrote every song on this record herself, she really only sticks to the mike and her acoustic six-string. This is so surprising, because the album has a very full, electric sound similar to an album like X&Y by Coldplay: dominant synthesizers and heavier electric guitars. Where her debut album sounded like folk-rock, this album sounds more like ‘plain’ pop-rock with at first listen only her very recognizable voice as the connection between the two albums. After a few listens you’ll notice there are similar writing techniques between the albums, but I think it’s safe to say MacDonald survived the second round. What will be a disturbing factor on this record is the way most songs sound alike. Each and every track here is catchy in some way and has its charms, but they all share something very similar. It’s hard to hum a certain song when you just heard the album in its entirety.
The highlights of the album are almost the same as the singles. “Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over” is unmistakably one of the most smashing songs on A Curious Thing; it really showcases every aspect of this record’s sound. We get to hear a new and fresh side of Amy, but unfortunately after five tracks in this sound that side’s getting less and less fresh. “My Only One” really stands out in the way it’s crafted; with tense and unexpected chord progressions and good vocals. The absence of the drums in this song was a great choice. On “Next Big Thing” you will instantly recognize MacDonald’s trademark upbeat pop tracks and you will once again know that those never get old. “Your Time Will Come” reminds slightly of 2007’s “Run”, but still sounds refreshingly good. Album closer “What Happiness Means To Me” is also one of the better compositions on A Curious Thing with its slightly epic atmosphere and the dominant synthesizers; it also contains a live recording attached as a hidden track which is really one of Amy’s best vocal performances. Also worth mentioning is the guitar solo in “Troubled Soul”; otherwise a quite bland track. This solo is not spine-shivering or any of the sort, but it certainly lifts the track to another level and shows how little effort it takes to make your tracks become more than they are.
And that brings us the downside of this album. With most of the songs sounding very alike, they are all very compact once again. While this may not bother fans of the genre, as a self-proclaimed music critic I would like to see more of that instrumental magic we heard on “Troubled Soul”. Still, Amy MacDonald did a great job on sounding different, but still the same and I guess that’s all we can ask for as long as she falls under the pop category. I highly recommend this album to fans of her debut record and to fans of popular music in general.
Strongest tracks: “Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over”, “My Only One” and “What Happiness Means To Me”.
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