Yep, it's her with that voice, somewhere between a helium-filled joke and a foghorn, that is so difficult to get used to. Well make the effort guys and gals, because this is a beautiful album - beautifully performed and beautifully produced ( in East Kilbride by Davie Scott). And that voice is at the heart of its beauty, warm, wistful and melancholic and with the loveliest subtle phrasing, always seeming to have enough time to linger over the lyric.
Thirteen songs of reflection on love, relationships and moods, with Morrissey's "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and a Mose Allison song, "Was", closing the album. Amy's own lyrics are pleasing and evocative, feeling like moments in life faithfully recorded in song. A good number of the songs are about relationships, and particularly about how men and women seem to have such different approaches; personally I can take or leave such songs, but that's blokes for you. The songs about mood have a reflective, sometimes wistful, tone that's really enjoyable, and not often encountered. In particular, I like "Just Give Me 'Moonlight In Vermont' ", a gentle expression of a wish that just sometimes life could be as simple and rewarding as in the songs and the movies.
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It's the music and the production sound that makes me really like this album, though; it's just packed full of lovely touches: there's a playful hint at Bacharach/David when the title song opens with the line "I just don't know what to do with .... my time". In the same song's chorus there's a soulful "Whoo oo oooh" backing vocal that is so delicately underplayed, your ears prick to make sure you catch it. It's a great warm blanket of an album, then, perfect to wrap around you at the end of a difficult day.
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