Having already released her country-folk sounding debut album Sugar Lights and supporting both Magic Dirt and Mark Lanegan (of Screaming Trees) on recent tours, Amaya Laucirica has definitely come in to her own, and has developed a sound that is unique unto itself with her latest release, Early Summer.
The album begins delicately with “Most Times I feel Alright”, a track that evokes a kind of otherworldly melancholy with a spooky, pretty purr that is reminiscent of Cat Powers early work. The first radio single, the dreamy “This World Can Make You Happy”, is at once a song of world-weariness and exultant optimism. Songs like this need to be sung with conviction and authenticity, and Amaya sings with both.
The haunting “Sun On My Face” washes over you with the echoing rumble of guitars and a chorus of organ-sounds, and “Marry Me” is a perfect country-folky love song. Amaya doesn’t complicate things, lyrically or musically, and it is this uncomplicated honesty that makes this album so heart-stirring and affecting.
Being a notorious one for a bit of in-car karaoke, I am particularity partial to any ’60s country numbers with sing-a-long backing vocals, and songs like “Climb Up High” are the kind of catchy ditties that have you singing along before you even know the words. Early Summer is ridden with bitter-sweet, yet wonderfully catchy numbers, that strike the emotional love-lost cord, a perfect example is the track “Anywhere She Went”, which is nothing if not a beautiful, joyous song of heartbreak.
Recorded in late 2009 at Port Melbourne’s Atlantis Studios, Early Summer offers a more eclectic sound than Amaya’s 2008 debut release. Although Amaya’s dreamy, rich vocals have been compared to the likes of Mazzy Stars’ Hope Sandoval, and also the Cowboy Junkies, the perfect simplicity of song writing on Early Summer is perhaps more akin to the likes of the late, great Roland S. Howard and his ability to create eerily beautiful songs. Amaya Laucirica shares this uncanny knack for creating light in the darkness. These are songs of love, loss, and the heavy-hearted. The kind of songs you listen to when your alone, in a car, driving home in the rain in the middle of the night.
Review Score: 8/10
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