Amy Studt Live Review @ The Gibson Rooms (London) - 11 Mar 2008
Amy Studt
Live Review
Having only being able to listen to just a small handful of her new material before seeing Amy at her showcase I was not sure what sort of experience I would be in for. Her earlier teenybob efforts may have impressed my little nieces with efforts such as ‘Just a Little Girl’ or ‘Misfit’ (still available on you tube) but are not really my cup of tea.
I was pleasantly surprised, although an obviously nervous Amy clearly has a strong powerful voice and her new material definitely is orientated towards a more adult audience. She has spent the last few years changing her sound into a more rock folk oriented package and even toured with Razorlight under the name Jane Wails, mind you I can’t imagine the average Razorlight audience enjoying it.
Unlike my fellow reviewer on this site I don’t believe that Amy ‘is a typical example of young pop starlet trying desperately to show that she has more depth than a particularly shallow puddle by throwing in a more orchestral, wannabe-epic scope while discussing pain, fragility and all that downer-stuff.’ I will admit that I think she is still trying to develop her own sound and I feel that ditching the more rocky elements to concentrate on a more contemporary low-fi sound, which highlights her voice, would be a better path for her. Speaking of this she spent rather a lot of time just shouting over the guitar which during this gig wouldn’t be so bad if the lead guitarist had some talent.
I would say that she sounds like a young Sheryl Crow or Tori Amos. She is showing lots of promise on her singles - ‘Furniture’ which was very well delivered and ‘One Last Cigarette’ which was delivered with a sad longing in her voice, but was only spoilt by overcomplicating it and by overly loud electric guitars. An unplugged acoustic version of that track would for me make a great single. Other tracks of note for me are ‘Nice Boys’ and ‘Here Lies Love’. To sum up I would encourage any of you to seek Amy out she is something a bit special.
