This Is The Life

Review AMY MACDONALD From Scotland comes Amy MacDonald, a fetching 20-year-old lass with a guitar, a strong will, thick eyeliner, and a voice that snaps you to attention. MacDonald is on the rootsier side of pop - more KT Tunstall than Lily Allen - and the '60s aren't exactly her guiding light. Her songwriting themes are universal, but her perspective is decidedly youthful. "Poison Prince" is a salute to forever-in-trouble rocker Pete Doherty, and MacDonald makes her rock-star ambitions clear on "Let's Start a Band": "Give me a stage and I'll be a rock 'n' roll queen/ Your 20th-century cover of a magazine/ Rolling Stone, here I come/ Watch out, everyone/ I'm singing, I'm singing my song." MacDonald's album, "This Is the Life," will be released stateside in August, but she'll preview her songs April 28 with her debut US performance at cozy Great Scott in Allston. We give her a year before she's headlining the Orpheum. -- The Boston Globe - James Reed Product Description Amy Macdonald's 2007 debut album, This Is the Life, topped the UK Albums chart and has sold more than a million copies. It spawned 6 singles, including the hits "Mr Rock & Roll," "Run," and the title track. From the Artist "I'm not interested in fame or celebrity," Amy Macdonald declares. "I just want to make music. I think a lot of people are sick and tired of people who are famous for no appar¬ent reason, and they like somebody who has worked hard and built it up gradually without flaunting themselves or selling their soul to the devil." "This is what I love about what I do: the opportunity to perform to lots of people and have them sing your songs back at you. It's the highlight at the end of the day." About the Artist She's humble, thoughtful, and not one for mindless chatter. She'd sooner talk about her favorite bands and songwriters, about football and films, than about herself. But put Amy Macdonald on stage with a guitar in her hands, let loose her rich, bell-clear voice on a brace of superb original songs--and the self-effacing 20-year-old with the pale skin and wide blue eyes is revealed as a compelling performer possessed of formidable musical gifts. Her Decca Universal debut album, This Is The Life, is equally impressive. On each of its eleven tracks, Amy's own acoustic guitar patterns form the foundation for the beautifully detailed arrangements created by producer Pete Wilkinson and mixed to perfection by Bob Clearmountain. The result is a seamless set of contemporary folk-flavored pop-rock with a warmly natural sound and free of hip-hop affectations. Amy's melodies are incredibly catchy--the quality that has made "Run," "This Is The Life," and "Mr. Rock & Roll" into international radio favorites--but her lyrics sometimes hint at a darker, edgier undercurrent. "Footballer's Wife" ponders the devaluation of celebrity, from James Dean and Marilyn Monroe to today's reality-show wanna-bes; "Poison Prince" is a sharp-eyed `look at the high-wire act of Pete Doherty (of Libertines and Babyshambles), one of Amy's earliest and most important musical inspirations. "Youth of Today" is a challenge to older generations, firm and clear-eyed without being self-righteous--Amy's version of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" or "My Generation." This Is The Life began moving up the British chart soon after its initial release in July 2007. The album reached Number One on January 13, 2008, knocking Radiohead's In Rainbows out of the top slot. To date, This Is The Life has sold more than 700,000 copies in the UK (double platinum) and over one million worldwide, making Amy Macdonald the biggest-selling female British artist to emerge last year. Thus far, her album has reached Number One in the UK, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands and cracked the Top 20 in Germany, Ireland, Austria, Belgium and Greece. Her ascent to stardom took Amy and those around her by surprise. "There was never any of that hype," she explained to an interviewer, "none of the `This is the next big thing, the album you must listen to.' It was more word-of-mouth and natural than that. And as a music fan myself, I know what it can be like. I hate being dictated to." "Her huge singing voice, her melodies and her lyrics resonate with people in a way that might be uncomplicated, but gets the message across with precision," wrote The Times of London. "And that message is sometimes subtler and more ambiguous than Macdonald's easy-on-the-ear compositions might suggest." The Daily Mail called This Is The Life "astonishingly mature" and "exuberant" while declaring "debut albums don't come much better than this." Back in the USA, the excitement has proven contagious. In April 2008, Amy arrived in the States for debut club appearances in Boston and New York. Her 4/28 performance at Great Scott in Boston prompted The Boston Globe to hail Amy Macdonald as "a 20-year-old lass with a guitar, a strong will, thick eyeliner, and a voice that snaps you to attention...We give her a year be
ASIN: B0017OLUUC
VSKU: DBV.B0017OLUUC.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Macdonald, Amy
Binding: Audio cd
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