Customer Reviews

Amanda Leigh

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to confess...I've always liked Mandy Moore. I even like her bubblegum pop years that she's disavowed, but I think it's because even then I felt that she had a quality that separated her from the pop-tarts of the day. That feeling was vindicated with "Coverage", her all-covers album, and then the triumph of "Wild Hope", which blew away any doubt that Mandy had the talent to be a real singer and songwriter.

So where does "Amanda Leigh" fit into this? To me, it's a masterpiece in the original sense. This proves that Mandy Moore deserves to be recognized as more than just "singer/actress" or "that girl who wasn't Britney or Christina." The album is like "Coverage" without being covers, it's like "Wild Hope" but with less packaging. It's like a sampling of the best of the 1970s without being a rip-off, but also fresh and current. I imagine a lot of the credit for the arrangements goes to her producer, who isn't afraid to pair strings with steel guitar or wrap in other combinations that beautifully complement the melodies and Mandy's perfect voice. She's playful and lilting at times, sultry and moody at others, and always front and center.

Favorite tracks? All of them, I suppose, but Merrimack River is certainly at the top of my list (and first on the album).

This album should be on lots of people's lists. It will be a revelation to some who might be skeptics or curious about this "singing actress" or "Ryan Adams' new wife", and I think it also should appeal to fans of Kim Richey, Dar Williams, and similar singer-songwriters. A must-buy (and a no-brainer at the current digital download price of $3.99!)

Have you heard of Mandy's cover of Doris Day's "Secret Love" (a style that Mrs. Moore hopefully ventures into in the future) on her Greatest Hits release? "Amanda Leigh" lies within the same vein - theatrical but made for easy listening.

I think that's why I enjoy Mandy Moore so much... it's the surprise factor and CONSISTENCY. Hell, I thought the Wild Hope effort was great but Amanda Leigh delivers, and does it with ease. With great mesmerizing melodies like "Merrimack River" and moody and haunting numbers such as the profound "Everblue"... she could have done NO wrong. Two songs that I found extremely nostalgic are "Indian Summer" (the piano introduction gives me chills) and "Bug" (an acoustic delight). Just INCREDIBLE. Mandy has done a fine, fine job.

I say to her keep up the great work... don't take the easy way out and spill out pop garbage (i.e. kelly clarkson) just to pay the bills.

This has been my favorite release so far this year.

It saddens me to think that people might blow this album off simply because they hear "Mandy Moore" and think of "Candy" and "I Wanna Be With You" years. While those songs were popular but no examples of fine music, I feel like Mandy Moore deserves another chance with listeners. She has matured into a fine songwriter and a superb artist. This album shows her maturity with evocative melodies and soul-penetrating lyrics. What helps her voice soar on this album compared with the others is the pairing of Moore's voice with a male backup vocalist instead of the usual female bunch (or Moore backing up herself). It gives it a richness that her older tracks never quite reached.
My favorite track is certainly Merrimack River (it's been on repeat on my iPod for weeks now), although each track has personality. Believe it or not, the single "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" is one of my least favorite tracks on the album, though it grows on me as I hear it within the context of the album (as opposed to on its own).
One point of interest--this is an ALBUM in the full sense of the word. While each song is great on its own, the album meant to be listened from start to finish like an old-school record. The tracks flow into one another and often will have an instrument recall a previous melody from another track. It's not something you come across in today's single-centric society. I definitely recommend buying the whole album, listening to it through, then going back and hearing individual songs again once you get a sense of where they are in the changing moods of the work.
Brava, Mandy! Hopefully people will give this album a spin and appreciate the fine musician you've grown to be.

With her latest effort, "Amanda Leigh", Mandy Moore continues to solidify her credentials as a contemporary singer-songwriter. This new album is much in the same folk-pop style as her last one, "Wild Hope", but with the addition of a bit of a country flavor this time. As on "Wild Hope", there are echoes of Joni Mitchell in the vocal and melodic lines, while the piano work is occasionally reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan. The steel guitars on "Love To Love Me Back" are something new, though, as is the clavinet on the first single, "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of the Week". Another track that I found particularly appealing was the closing song, the country-influenced "Bug". Another fine effort from Mandy, and one that is especially recommended for fans of Mitchell, McLachlan, Norah Jones, and Katie Melua.

Trying to break away from a teen idol image is never the easiest thing in the world. It's even harder in these first ten years of the 21st century if you're a woman, because the very term "teen idol" has sadly been codified by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. That's the sort of atmosphere even someone as accomplished as Mandy Moore is (a pretty good singer, and not too bad an actress) has had to face. But unlike a lot of other teen idols (especially the more recent one, Taylor Swift), Mandy has made an impact and a name for herself, both on the movie screen and in the recording studio. Not content to record the same kind of teen pop as many of her contemporaries, she has managed to make the kind of music that smacks of the long-lost singer/songwriter era of the 1970s. She had done this on her 2007 album WILD HOPE; and she has exceeded even that on AMANDA LEIGH, which is in fact her given name (Amanda Leigh Moore).

Though she had proven herself as a solid enough actress in films like THE PRINCESS DIARIES and A WALK TO REMEMBER, Mandy has done even better for herself with music; and there's no better example of this than on AMANDA LEIGH. Songs like "Merrimack River", "Bug", and "Love To Love Me Back" have an acoustic-influenced vibe to them, touching on folk, rock, and Southern California-influenced country, perhaps influenced by her having married Ryan Adams (this era's Gram Parsons, sans the chemical excesses that cut Gram's life short). And on the clavinet-dominated "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week", Mandy seems to be aiming for a vintage Linda Ronstadt vibe, circa 1977, and she succeeds rather well at that, even exuding some of Linda's spunky vocal delivery. Much of the rest of the album, whose material was written by Moore herself and her co-producer Mike Viola, has that same vibe so endemic to the music that emanated from Los Angeles between 1965 and 1980, including the uses of pedal steel guitar and electric piano.

It may be a bit too easy for some to brush off Mandy because of her being a contemporary of Britney, but the fact is that she is realizing in herself the kind of musical potential that Britney may never be able to do, and this to go along with her many good acting turns. AMANDA LEIGH shows that even if the acting gig goes south on her, Mandy will certainly have a steady singing career to fall back on in the years to come.

"Amanda Leigh" is not 'Candy Mandy'. This is Moore's masterpiece. With an album-length 70's vibe, Mandy and musical partner Mike Viola channel vintage Van Dyke Parks in opening number and instant classic "Merrimack River", a song of dazzling subtlety with a forget-me-not melody. "Fern Dell" is filled with playful time changes- delightfully cabaret. If current radio was any good at all, "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week" would be a huge hit. Mandy expertly channels Joni Mitchell in the breathtaking "Song About Home", a song that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Mitchell's "For The Roses" or "Court And Spark". For me, "Song About Home" and the following "Everblue", a flowing and intimate gem are also instant classics. One can practically feel a gentle breeze blowing through "Love To Love You Back" and "Indian Summer". "Nothing Everything" is the last classic with a wonderfully inventive arrangement, especially the ending background vocals. "Bug" serves as a perfect coda to the preceding music. It has echoes of Cat Stevens.

The lyrics throughout are inventive, honest and relatable. Mandy's emergence as an artist to be reckoned with began with "Wild Hope" and flowers on "Amanda Leigh". Delicious!

I'm going to admit I'm not a fan of the late '90s explosion of "pop music" artists out there, and Mandy Moore was always on the fringe of them all, because she seemed smarter than the rest. She didn't profess to be righteous one moment and a "good girl" and then drunkenly crash her Mercedes into a lamppost or end up in some kind of sex scandal.

In a way she was lucky in that although she didn't have the monster success of her contemporaries, she survived it with her head held high and wrote her own music. She also went very seamlessly from singer to actress, and she handles drama as well as comedy with no problems.

But back to the album at hand, "Amanda Leigh" - which of course, judging by the title alone, this must be her 'roots' album, or her 'coming home' album, so that she can prove she can make 'her own kind' of music. However, this only proved to me that her music is as quirky as she probably wanted it to be - as it seems it's nothing I can peg down properly without citing a few references.

About the technical part of the album -
As for the length, it's a zippy 50+ minutes over 11 songs - the songs are crisp and her songwriting is clear as she has never really needed to scream or entice the listener with borrowed lyrics and overly-produced tracks. Her voice is top form here, as she half-whispers. The small independent label that is producing the album, Storefront, is using her album as a launching point. They just started up in January 2009 themselves.

Now, about the music -
The album begins with two very intimate songs, "Merrimack River" and "Fern Dell." These songs alone had the potential to make me become an instant fan of what might have been a new direction for her.

Strangely, though, she turns to a couple of 1970's pop era Bay City Roller/early Carpenters hybrids - "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week" and "Pocket Philosopher", which I liked but not loved. I mean, I like them, but were they strong? No, not really.

And it's odd, too, that this feeling goes on for entire length of the 11 songs on the album...

Anyway, "Song About Home" gets intimate and flows well, "Everblue" goes as deep as any Radiohead can go (without the screaming angst), "Merrimack River (Reprise)" is a creepy afterthought to the opening song, and then a huge surprise as "Love To Love Me Back" is for me one of the best tracks on the album. The song tells a wonderful story of unrequited love and missed opportunities.

The key for the whole album for me however was "Indian Summer", as the heavy piano and light lyrics finally reminded me of what I think she was trying to do here. Is she, or is she not, trying to (in her own way) channel the grandmama of all great female singer/songwriters, Carly Simon? If she was, that's a good thing, because I've ALWAYS loved Carly since the early '70s.

"Nothing Everything" definitely showed her hand by then, and I understood her music, and her direction, and by then the entire album, uneven as it may be, worked for me. She probably knows that the entire greedy "give-it-to-me-now" world always wants that next big song, and to be honest, she's got a good chance of a few Top 40's Contemporary Adult hits here, as either "Love To Love Me Back", "Indian Summer" or "Nothing Everything" does it for me.

The last song, "Bug", gave me a wonderful 1975 Doobie Brothers/Jim Croce vibe. It was intimate again, and the song felt like it was written as a note left of the fridge as she walked out the door with her fringe jacket and acoustic guitar as she just has to go and explore the world.

Did I like the album? Yes. But can I see myself hearing any of her songs on the Top 40 pop stations, next to a LOT of the garbage that passes for music nowadays? Sadly, no.

The shame of it is this has potential to be a great album. I listened to it a couple of times (and I never ever really do that with too many other albums) and since it fell into my hands it has been there, a wonderful little piece of music that will attest to Mandy's talent as a songwriter and as a singer - as I've said before, just like Carly Simon.

Check this album out, this is one not to be missed. I REALLY wanted to give her 5 stars for the effort, but I held back because of the unevenness.

Well, maybe that was being mean, but honestly it's still good overall and worth listening to.

(Please check out my other obviously hypercritical reviews, and thanks for reading.)

From the first 10 seconds, this album blew me away. I love the guitars and the folkish vocals. The harmonies and melodies are just amazing in this. I hate to use the word "darker", but it is darker than her other material; more grown-up, I suppose. It's definately more mature in it's instrument use and as a musician, I think this is her best work yet. I hope she continues within this path and delivers more as soon as possible.

Perhaps the only major teen queen of this decade to remain artistically relevant after 10 years, the softer, more mature side of Mandy Moore has certainly proven to be something worth that long wait. Disavowing all traces of the party-loving, ghetto-glamorizing persona of Britney and others like her, Mandy seems content instead just to gaze out over the horizon of Nowhere, Kansas and sing about whatever little thing enters her mind. She does it beautifully (though not nearly as much so as with "Wild Hope") with this sweet, homey batch of songs inspired by legends such as Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, and Todd Rundgren. Selections such as "Song About Home," "Pocket Philosopher" and pretty much anything else on the album are the type of mature, well-crafted music that her former competitors couldn't make if they tried.

I simply love this latest gem from Mandy Moore. It is just so wonderful to see her going this direction of gorgeous, sunny, brilliant of a pop album with hints of folky, americanas, alt-country being thrown in.
She is much better doing these kind of songs. Her voice really feels free
and organic with these type of tunes. I hope she will keep on continue releasing great albums. One of the very best albums of the year!