Amy MacDonald

'A Curious Thing' is the follow-up album to Amy MacDonald’s debut album 'This Is The Life'. The new album apparently draws influence from personal experiences of fame and its trappings (X Factor etc.), along with some more personal emotions, especially on tracks like the closing number 'What Happiness Means To Me'.

What stands out throughout this album is the difference between Amy McDonald and many other leading female artists at present. Amy McDonald really wears her heart on her sleeve and knows how to write a warm, honest tune or two. The other element that really shows is the quality of the production on this album. The arrangement on the tracks really allows Amy’s vocals to shine but create a wide ranging bed of accompaniment that adds really depth and warmth to the tracks without overpowering them.

The tracks range from the strong lead single 'Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over’ and 'Troubled Soul’ through to more stripped back emotionally charged tracks like 'I Got No Roots’ and 'My Only One’ and even the slightly 60’s sounding 'Love Love’. Top tune for me though is 'Spark’, a huge track with a rousing chorus that really showcases Amy’s fantastic vocals. This is surely going to be the follow single

The whole album was recorded at Paul Weller’s Surrey studio, and as a fan of Amy’s work, Paul contributed on a couple of tracks - 'Love, Love' and 'This Pretty Face' – as well as offering guidance throughout the recording process.

'A Curious Thing’ continues to establish Amy MacDonald as a leading musical talent in the UK, but unfortunately we don’t seem to appreciate this on our shores – the latest single failed to make the Top 100. Hopefully future single releases will help to make Amy as successful here as she is elsewhere in the world.