Amy Speace - That Kind Of Girl

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another fine album from Amy Speace


Update, May 2015: I saw Amy Speace live at The Green Note in London and she was superb. Her voice was magical; it had real power, tenderness and expressiveness, and a purity of tone and intonation which reminded me of the young Joan Baez at times. She has a great rapport with her audience, with witty and intelligent chat between songs which matches the intelligence of her lyrics, and with time and relaxed charm for people afterwards. The songs from this album took on a whole new power and depth when performed by just her with either guitar and piano, and having listened to the album again several times since, I think I was originally looking for something in the album that wasn't meant to be there. Judged objectively on their own terms these are excellent songs, beautifully sung and very well performed, so I've revised my rating up to 5.

I've left my initial review unrevised below because that seems the honest thing to do, but I don't think I would voice those reservations now - and if Amy needs crowd funding for her next album, I'll be there in the crowd without question. She's a really excellent songwriter and performer and I can give this album a warm recommendation. (And do go to see her if she's performing near you. It's a special evening.)

Original review:
This is a good album with some fine songs, although to my ears it's not quite as good as her last one, How To Sleep In A Stormy Boat.

Amy Speace is a very good singer/songwriter. She writes good tunes and thoughtful, intelligent lyrics. She's also a fine performer with a lovely voice which she uses excellently, and she's a talented guitarist, too. I have found her work distinctive and very rewarding, and some of Amy Speace's songs have been quite exceptionally good. (Left Me Hanging is a real masterpiece of both writing and performing, I think.)

On That Kind Of Girl, those characteristics are still evident, but she has decided not to play her own guitar here and has brought in a very fine band of musicians while she sticks to singing. In a way that works very well; the sound is great, the production is very smooth and there are a number of very good songs here including the title track and the opener, Nothing Good Can Come From This. It's a quality album, but...

My reservations are rather personal and elusive. To me there's a slight corporate Nashville gloss to the album which robs it of some of the real distinctness which I have found so exciting in Amy Speace's work. Her voice, both in her singing and what she sings, remains both intelligent and beautiful, but somehow the band and the production make her songs stand out rather less distinctly from the crowd of good Americana albums being made at the moment. I really yearn for something like the dark, sexy drive of Hunter Moon or the transfixing insight and sadness of Left Me Hanging for example.

Don't get me wrong - That Kind Of Girl is still a very good album and no-one with any interest in this genre will be disappointed in it. It's just that bits of Stormy Boat grabbed me by the ears and made me such a fan that I contributed to the funding of this album, and I'm not sure That Kind Of Girl would have done the same. Amy Speace is still a class act, though, and I can recommend this album. It's very good - it's perhaps just not truly great.