A Curious Thing

Perils of a glorious debut

A commercially and musically proficient debut album has one great negative merit. Once you release it, you are doomed to work hard and long to make your subsequent effort at least as good as this one. In most cases, it should be even better. Yet the reality makes it quite clear: young artists who have managed to make a sensation with their first albums, usually find themselves in a writer’s bloc, worn out physically and emotionally, thus unable to carry on as impressively as before. It goes without saying that listeners do not care about it. So, when the stage spawns a promising fresher whose ambitions and talent are well confirmed by the debut studio work, they imminently demand a continuation of this fame story. This exactly the reason why the 2007 overnight star Amy MacDonald knew that after her striking introducing effort This Is Life, she was not going to be given a license to fail. More than three million of sold copies and number one place in five national charts formed up a serious claim. There came a time to make a big step forward. In the spring of 2010, the singer delivered the sophomore album, A Curious Thing.

Maturity and wisdom of A Curious Thing

Critics and ordinary music fans have always been particularly fascinated by those performers who tend to write music for their albums on their own. In the three years that have passed since the debut long player release, Amy MacDonald has not wasted a single bit of her sing-writing talent, which she came to demonstrate on A Curious Thing. Produced better than the its predecessor, this work is more mature, ambitious and impressive. You will find even more remarkable choruses here, and the folk-rock echoes here make the songs even more colorful. Amy is only 22, yet already now she undertakes to speak on the topics that seem tricky to much more experienced performers. As early as now, the singer wants to share her thoughts about a mega-star life (I Got No Roots, This Pretty Face). Backed by a quiet accompaniment, bereft of abrupt passage and tempo changes, she tells a story of what she saw with her own eyes, saying no word from her fantasies. The sad moments prevail over the bright ones. Nonetheless, after striking a listener’s heart with the nostalgic Love, Love and desperate Give It All Up, Amy still finishes the album in a more optimistic way with Your Time Will Come, and What Happiness Means to Me.

Amy MacDonald’s rapid progress without side effects

A Curious Thing has a cover that looks much like that of This Is Life. One difference is that three years ago, the girl, so young back then, was looking somewhere downwards, and now she looks straightforward into your eyes expressing the confidence she has acquired. In fact, the similarity between the folders symbolizes the stylistic similarity between Amy’s first two studio works. She now works in a music space where she feels herself most comfortable. You could say she has found a place for her music to live at; and from release to release she is going to furnish and tune it up better and better. So far, Amy produces no signs of young star illness that has stricken many celebrated musicians of her age. She stills releases moderately designed albums with nothing shocking or shouting on the covers; she still writes thought-provoking lyrics and performs the same music, yet on a far greater level. When everything is so good, the only wish you have is to wait less than another three years for her next album.