Review: Amelia White

Amelia White - Beautiful and Wild (Independent)
This is a grower. A slow and steady grower, mind, and therefore needs a bit of care when you listen to it, er, grow on you. It’d be an easy album to lose, as there is nothing much that’s immediate here at all, nothing that will tear at your heartstrings and rip out that vital organ on first listening. Tracks like "Lonely Sound", "Molten Fire" and the title track nod to Lucinda Williams (actually, only a very few don't come with an LW influence), but they won't stop you in your tracks. They don't have that certain ingredient that’s injected into them by Williams, though she took a couple of decades to perfect the potion. Still, we’ll wait and see if Ms. White can make her own magic, but only if she has the staying power to stick with it.

One track that peeks out and shows its potential is the cover of Brian Ferry's "More Than This", a very moody take on a very moody song. The vocals are almost a long, gentle slur as the song snakes a path off the alt. country route, and would appeal to a wider audience if given the chance. Okay, it’s not her own song, but she really does make a great fist of taking ownership of it, which is by no means an easy task, as the original scored high marks first time ‘round. The one truly outstanding song of her own is "Saint Christopher", a giant roller-coaster of a number with great backing. She follows this with closer "Rider Ghost", which is a gentler affair, but also shows a lot of promise.

Given time, you could get to like these 11 songs here quite a lot, but if you decide that they’re not for you, I can assure you that you won't easily get rid of her take of "More Than This", nor those two final two songs, either.
http://www.ameliawhite.com/
Kev A.