Because this is really the life. Because this is the lively tune, the one my friends break into on their guitar around a barbecue on summer nights. Because these are the unlikely yet harmonious notes, the ones we sing bursting out laughing when curled up on a couch. Because these are the coloured drinks, the ones we have again and again during our joyful evenings. Because this is the husky vocal, the one we listen to with our eyes closed. Because this is John Bonham’s electrifying drums, the one we admire stunned on Led Zep’s last live record when it’s 6 a.m. and there’s nothing else to do than falling asleep in front of a DVD. Because Amy Macdonald offers us with This Is The Life the most moving and genuine album of this year, of my writer career, of this decade maybe.

A rare talent. In the music and in the writing. A writing impressive by its ordinariness and accuracy. Which describes life, her life, our life, my life, this life. With words that never go too far, that denounce without hurting, that express personal yet shared feelings, that state the simple life of a 20-years-old Scottish girl who says how happy she is to have made a name for herself at the same time as Kate Nash, her English mate who gets the media coverage Amy cries out against.

Indeed, even though she was interested in music early, even though she was writing and composing songs on her daddy’s neglected guitar at the age where some would only care to match their earrings to their braces, Amy Macdonald never looked for fame or celebrity. Just the acknowledgement of her talent, so she can earn her living by her passion: music. We can only concede British culture in the field of celebs, and English people’s affection to gossips make us grin. It’s exactly what our pretty brunette rejects, and that she nicely exposes on the tearing Footballer’s Wife with lyrics which make us smile when we make the analogy with the starlets we see everywhere on magazines, but which get us right there when the few piano notes before the chorus pass on Amy’s despair towards the vanity of a society that allows every one to show off, cos I just don’t care what’s going on today, I think there’s something more, something more. Before you leave this life, there’s so much more to see I don’t believe this is how the world should be.

The message is clear, Amy confides in us through her songs. Her lyrics are like a diary to which she talks without metaphors, about everything that is close to her heart. And even about Jake Gyllenhaal. L.A. talks straight out about the passion she has for the actor, but the young woman keeps her wits about him, she realizes he’s not really a part of her world, once again fully aware of the gap between fiction and reality, between famous people and the others. Because Amy Macdonald is outstanding, a deliberate witness of our existences, behind her words, her voice and her guitar. The trio ruling on the album’s ballad The Road To Home, followed by the hidden track Caledonia, real patriotic tribute on which Amy doesn’t make a fuss. The very least for an only result: emotion. But she can also rock it by going over the top. A trumpet, nothing less, on the record’s treasure Let’s Start A Band which reminds us by far Arcade Fire with a lyricism backed by a mind-blowing voice and this progressive increase in power followed by a final explosion, Amy’s vocal as fireworks. Upbeat lively rhythms on Barrowland Ballroom with a Belle & Sebastian-like tone for our greatest pleasure. Percus play a big part in her tunes, backing up the guitar and intensifying the vocals, as on Poison Prince the first single of the album that she wrote thinking about Pete Doherty. And it’s not a surprise how strong the influence of the Libertines is on the young lady’s work, being an admitted fan of theirs, the legend even says she almost entirely composed the album after one of their shows. And in the legend, that’s precisely what we hope Amy Macdonald will enter.

And we can thank Travis for that, the first ones to have inspired our Scottish girl with The Man Who, the very first record Amy has ever owned and listened to again and again. There’s no doubt that on a Saturday afternoon a few years from now, a young boy will enter a record dealer and instead of buying himself ice-cream with the money his gran will have given him, he’ll fall on this plain album, the aged photograph of a young brunette posing with her guitar, a sad look on her face, and he’ll fall in love with music listening to that record This Is The Life, he’ll grab a guitar his mom had neglected for a long time and write some of the most inspired songs of his time.

Oh the wind whistles down the cold dark street tonight and the people they were dancing to the music vibe. And the boys chase the girls, with curls in their hair while the shocked too many just sit way over there and the songs get louder each one better than before. And you’re singing the songs thinking this is the life and you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size. Where you gonna go, where you gonna go, where you gonna sleep tonight? And you’re singing the songs thinking this is the life and you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size. Where you gonna go, where you gonna go, where you gonna sleep tonight? Where you gonna sleep tonight. So you’re heading down the road in your taxi for four and you’re waiting outside Jimmy’s front door, but nobody’s in and nobody’s home till 4. So you’re sitting there with nothing to do talking about Robert Ragger and his Motley Crüe. And where you gonna go, where you gonna sleep tonight? And you’re singing the song thinking this is the life, and you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size. Oh where you gonna go, where you gonna go, where you gonna sleep tonight? Where you’re gonna sleep tonight.

This Is The Life
Amy MacDonald

• Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Audio CD (February 12, 2008)
• Original Release Date: July 30, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Umvd Import
• Buy & Download Mp3s
  

Band Website : amymacdonald.co.uk

Video for “This is The Life”

Video for “Mr Rock & Roll”

Video for “Poison Prince”