And You’re Singing a Song Thinking This Is the Life

There has been a retro renaissance coming out of Great Britain as heard from the voices of Amy Winehouse and Duffy. In the northern part of the British Isles there seems to be a rock resurgence from the lasses of Scotland. First there was the Bo Diddley honoring KT Tunstall with her Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. Now the land of kilts and bagpipes brings us Amy MacDonald, another guitar toting singer with her debut This Is the Life.

Unlike Tunstall, whose formative years were spent in New England, MacDonald is Scottish born and bread leaving her with a thick accent that can even be heard in her singing voice that hasn’t been heard since the chick from The Cranberries. The differences to Tunstall also draw a line in musicianship where MacDonald really has only one gear, where Tunstall could craft many different tunes, each as good as the previous.

But that one gear is pretty good, the showstopper being the title track, an upbeat Celtic folk song about going down to your local pub for some ale and a band. That same esthetic goes the same for Mr. Rock and Roll and the ode to Pete Doherty Poison Prince. The slow, strings laden Footballer’s Wives also get a sarcastic song on their behalf.

Also on the disk is the Mexican horns opening for Let’s Start a Band that conjures up images of the previously mentioned small town pub that quickly morph into stadium with Amy telling Rolling Stone and Glastonbury to get ready. It could make any Guitar Hero to put down a plastic toy and pick up a real ax. The variety may not be as wide on This Is the Life but keep in mind Tunstall has more than a decade on the twenty year old, with age, maybe MacDonald Rolling Stone cover premonition could come true before she hits thirty.

Song to Download - This Is the Life

(You can currently download This Is The Life (Acoustic) over at Amazon MP3 for free.)

This Is the Life gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.