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Genre: folk, pop, acoustic/indie Rating:  Check Out: “Let’s Start A Band,” “L.A.,” “Footballer’s Wife,” and “Run.”  myspace, website |
Only a 20-year-old, Amy Macdonald has a masterful voice that immediately brings to mind Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries. It’s surprising that such a strong voice can come from someone so young, but once you hear her lyrics you’ll be even more impressed by her maturity. At the age of 15, she wrote the song “Youth of Today,” which sounds like every teenager’s power anthem. But the fact that she was so young and yet so jaded catches your ear like nothing else. “Footballer’s Wife” is a great stance on the celebrities of today, while “Let’s Start A Band” has a mysterious beauty to it.
My one complaint about this album is the production and some of the lyrics. As “The Road to Home” shows, Macdonald is perfect with acoustic songs; so why the effort to add violins and layers in songs that don’t need them? Perhaps it’s an effort to attract the ears of listeners her age, but it seems a sad attempt. And while the lyrics aren’t always perfect, her voice makes this a masterful debut album. After all, it’s already gone platinum.
