What does Amy Macdonald think when she looks out at her audience – and at this first of two sold out homecoming shows, that’s a lot of faces – and sees a room full of fans who are mostly old enough to be her parents?
Amy MacDonald
ABC, Glasgow
Star rating: * * *
While similarly big-voiced contemporaries such as Adele and Emeli Sande appeal to their peers – among many others – Macdonald’s sturdy but middle-of-the road songwriting speaks to a mature audience.
Arguably, this is because her music harks back to the commercial glory years of 80s Scotrock – with the emphasis these days on rock. Macdonald and band are well drilled, thanks to her stiff touring schedule, and they attacked set opener 4th of July, essentially a song of love and celebration, with something close to aggression, while the hectic note-to-self Slow Down did anything but.
Macdonald is a hearty singer but not a nuanced interpreter. Her lack of dynamics was exposed by a stridently strummed solo acoustic rendition of Love Love, which was devoid of sensitivity or intimacy, despite the plaintive subject matter, and a rather square cover of Jackie Wilson’s Higher And Higher. But she played to her single-minded strengths on the driving Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over and the relentlessly jaunty This Is The Life.
This being a home fixture, the unashamedly patriotic Macdonald was able to showcase a couple of new songs with a cultural significance which would not be lost on the locals. Pride, inspired by her experience of singing at a Scotland international, and The Green and the Blue, her valiantly optimistic response to sectarianism, were both sincere but simplistic expressions of her roots, which satisfied only for a superficial singalong.