Tag: Amy Macdonald

Amy Macdonald – Never Too Late

“I realised, hang on, this is actually quite good.”

Tim: We’ve featured Amy Macdonald once before, when you said you thought she was Swedish based her voice and music; I thought that too with this one, but nope, turns out she’s just as Scottish as she was in 2012.

Tim: And that’s quite a ballad. As it landed on my new music playlist, I wondered what was going on, because it does take some time before much happens. But when it does, as it grows, well that really makes it worth listening to.

Tom: I’ll be honest with you: about half way through the first verse, I tabbed away and got distracted by other things on the internet. It wasn’t until the first chorus that I realised, hang on, this is actually quite good.

Tim: And that actually doesn’t surprise me, because it does take a while. What I particularly like here, though, is that in so, so many similar songs we’d have a drop down after the first chorus and start again with the building, but here there’s no sign of that – we keep the string backing we’ve earned along the way, and keep growing.

Tom: And there’s a lot to be said for that as a style, particularly with a chorus like this one.

Tim: Yes, there’s no big drop, and yes, it could get going a little bit sooner. But it’s a bit like that video of the cockatoos: it just keeps getting better throughout, and I like that.

Amy Macdonald – 4th of July

“I heard this, and thought it sounded Swedish.”

Tom: Over the couple of years we’ve been writing this tripe, Tim, I’ve started to get a taste for varying European accents — and the music that tends to come out of the Scandinavian nations. I heard this, and thought it sounded Swedish. And I’m wrong: because Amy Macdonald is very, very Scottish.

Tim: Yes, she is.

Tom: Let’s ignore the inopportune timing of the song, because that’s too easy a joke. Normally, I’d wonder if a track like this was worth writing about: it pretty much fits our generic-song formula.

Tim: It does, but it’s pretty excited and energetic and almost inducing of finger-clicking, which is always nice to hear. And that’s before you get to the fanfares in the background.

Tom: But that voice, and that triumphant backing: it’s a cut above. I’m not sure what it reminds me of, particularly in its closing few seconds, but it’s something rather wonderful.

Tim: I don’t think it reminds me of anything – just generally good, upbeat celebratory songs. Which is only logical, since that’s what it is.