Amie Macdonald – Life in a Beautiful Light

My third review of the much under-rated Ms. Macdonald and nothing much has changed in Amie’s world of middle of the road, Scottish folk pop.

And that’s where the review could end. Here are twelve of Amie’s songs with her trademark sound, her trademark voice and her trademark song-writing. Imagine if the Proclaimers had not been twins, and they’d been a woman and you’re probably not a million miles away from Amie’s persona in the world of music. She’s like haggis; gorgeous, tasty and wholesome, but no-one outside Scotland could care less about it. Except I have my doubts that anyone in Scotland cares about Amie Macdonald either.

And then, as always, we come to the point in the review where I ask the question. Who actually does like Amie Mcdonald? Who does she appeal to? Too soft for the folkies, too folky for middle of the roadsters, too harsh on the ear for warbling fans, too quirky for the mainstream, too mainstream for alternatives. That’s right, no-one likes Amie Mcdonald, and I have a suspicion that she has only sold two copies of this album; one to me and one to her mum. Nevertheless, we love our Amie at the Into the Valley offices and she must be getting close to Hall of Fame status when I introduce it.   

All the songs in this collection are the standard issue Amie Macdonald stalwarts that we know and love. ‘The Green and the Blue’ possibly deserves special mention as it’s about football, but ultimately it gets sucked back into the swamp of high quality mediocrity. It’s an enjoyable album but unless you already love her, it’s not going to change anyone’s mind.