Latest news with #AmyMacdonald
Scotsman
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Amy Macdonald Barry Can't Swim
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Amy Macdonald: Is This What You've Been Waiting For? (BMG/Infectious) ★★★ Barry Can't Swim: Loner (Ninja Tune) ★★★★ Wet Leg: Moisturizer (Domino) ★★★★ In an age of free music streaming, who will buy? It's an unresolved question which led singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald to take a recording sabbatical of close to five years before producing her sixth album. The title of Is This What You've Been Waiting For? sounds like something of a challenge from an old school artist who considers her albums as her creative shop window and the answer will be in the affirmative to those who want mostly more of the same from this MOR pop traditionalist. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Amy Macdonald | Contributed That said, she sings of being alive to sensory stimulation – 'light and sound it's all around, I feel the noise beneath the ground' – on the opening title track against her usual moderately driving backing, while a moment later she is straining at the leash on Trapped, asking 'can you break me out?' The fun begins with Can You Hear Me? with its engaging ABBA-via-Texas chiming disco pop intro, pattering drums and lyrics of cosmic visitations. Macdonald started her career as a teenager, if an old soul, but this is her tipping her hat to the next generation, specifically the young audience who responded with such enthusiasm to her TRNSMT set a couple of years ago. Age is on her mind as she sings with compassion from the perspective of an older, worn character in The Hope. Later, she is feeling her age over big shimmering synthesizers on It's All So Long Ago. Throughout, Macdonald upholds her admirable aversion to ballads with the skiffly drumbeat and blues guitar backing of We Survive, while One More Shot taps into slick Eighties pop territory. There is little new to report across the album's ten trim tracks but she does at least have her eyes on the prize on the appropriately named Forward, pitching herself headlong into potential salvation in a new relationship ('I just knew when I saw you') with a refreshed energy which is not always evidenced in her music. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Barry Can't Swim | Contributed Edinburgh-born Joshua Mainnie, better known and acclaimed as DJ/producer Barry Can't Swim, came up through his student clubbing days/nights along the Cowgate to be nominated for the Brit Awards, Scottish Album of the Year Award and Mercury Prize for his 2023 debut When Will We Land? Any pressure surrounding a follow-up evaporates on contact with the beautiful, easy electronica suite of Loner. The album opens with the decidedly indie gothic strains of The Person You'd Like To Be overlaid with a deadpan vocal sample of a motivational coach offering increasingly paranoid maxims such as 'try not to laugh too hard at anyone else's jokes'. Klaxons blare and engines rev on the banging tuneage of Different but elsewhere Mainnie draws more on trance traditions, from the ecstatic Afro-Cuban refrain of Kimpton via the gentle gospel invocation of All My Friends to the beatific Balearic beat of the poetically titled Cars Pass By Like Childhood Sweethearts. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The samples of satirical self-affirmation are back on Machine Noise for a Quiet Daydream while the hypnotic hands-in-the-air atmosphere of Like It's Part of the Dance should go down like a dream on his numerous summer festival dates. Childhood uses its euphoric Seventies soul sample to utterly feelgood effect while the swelling romantic strings and hazy trumpet of Wandering Mt Moon make for a thoughtful comedown. Wet Leg | Contributed The equally acclaimed Wet Leg also return with supreme confidence on their second album Moisturizer, settling into their role as the Isle of Wight's premier musical export with a collection of songs inspired, often impishly, by new and all-consuming love. Singer Rhian Teasdale diagnoses herself as lovesick on the irresistible CPR, pledges extreme devotion on Davina McCall, brushes off all-comers on Catch These Fists and celebrates cosy domesticity on U and Me At Home, all with the playful intensity of a UK Yeah Yeah Yeahs. CLASSICAL Kantos: In Your Dreams (Delphian) ★★★★★ Better known north of the border as Engagement Conductor of the RSNO, Ellie Slorach reveals herself in a significantly different light here as founder and director of the Manchester-based Kantos Chamber Choir. The a cappella content in this debut Delphian album reflects the ensemble's silken versatility, with music ranging from Vaughan Williams and Josef Rheinberger to Mátyás Seiber's whimsical Nonsense Songs and Billy Joel's Lullabye (Goodnight my Angel). Comforting contemporary voices such as Eric Whitacre (Sleep) contrast effectively with the rumbustious folksiness of Jaakko Mäntyjârvi's Pseudo-Yoik, or the chuff-chuffing of Hungarian-born Kristina Arakelyan's Train Ride. But the clincher is a format that operates as a sequential narrative what Kantos refer to as the 'reimagining of the choral album as a single immersive dreamscape' – snippets of spoken Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson interwoven with illustrative music that is deliciously sung, artfully expressed and, for all its instant accessibility, both neatly accessible and challenging. Ken Walton JAZZ Anouar Brahem: After the Last Sky (ECM) ★★★★
Sunday Post
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday Post
Amy Macdonald is positively on track with long-awaited album
Get a weekly round-up of stories from The Sunday Post: Thank you for signing up to our Sunday Post newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up When it comes to music, Amy Macdonald is happy-go-lucky. When I ask whether she deliberately set out to make her new album, Is This What You've Been Waiting For?, bold, punchy and – increasingly rarely of late – hopeful, she shakes her head. 'No, not at all, that's just my default setting,' she says. 'That's the type of stuff I want to listen to. When I listen to music, I want to dance and sing at the top of my voice, so that's what I naturally gravitate towards when writing my own songs and making my own music. I always want a big chorus.' The album is high octane from start to finish, with every tune dialled up and ready to be sung at full blast in the car. The four-on-the-floor beat that opens the first track almost had me thinking Amy had ditched her guitar for a full-blown dance record. For most music lovers, hitting play on an upbeat track is an emotional release – especially with big, bolshy anthems like Amy's. So, when she's writing, does she ever think about helping listeners break out of an emotional bind? 'I think that thought is there in my subconscious,' she says. 'I know there's times when I'm feeling a bit rough, all I want to do is put on happy tunes and forget about all the noise and everything that is going on. You want the music to be a good escape for people and to help them forget all the stressful c*** going on in their lives.' Is This What You've Been Waiting For? is Amy's sixth studio album, and her first since 2021. The last time she was on the promotional trail, Covid was at its zenith. 'It was quite stressful putting my last album out during Covid,' she explains. 'With this album, I wanted to go back to just enjoying it and wanting to do what I was doing, rather than feeling like I needed to. 'I'm not the most prolific writer. I'm not constantly jotting things down. And, after my last record, I purposely took a bit of time away, so it didn't feel stressful. I took more time off than I normally would. After a while, I started to write songs on my own. Then I started doing a couple of trips down to London with my bandmates, and that's how the album came together.' © Olivia Rose While every song on the new album is a toe-tapper, there is pathos running through the record's 10 tracks too. On the defiant I'm Done, Amy turns her back on a toxic relationship. On It's All So Long Ago, she looks back to the beginning of her career, when she was touring small bars across Scotland at only 17 years old. 'I'm definitely a nostalgic person,' says Amy. 'I'm always daydreaming and thinking of everything that happened. I actually wrote It's All So Long Ago with my drummer, because he was the first other musician who I ever performed with. 'We were reminiscing about how we'd known each other for over 20 years, and we couldn't quite believe it. 'We were laughing about all of the funny things that had happened, all the places we'd been, and we both thought it would be a good song. That's how it was born.' Despite the success she has enjoyed over her 18-year-long career, it's sometimes hard for Amy to believe. After selling out Glasgow's Ovo Hydro, she took to Instagram to tearfully thank her fans for the support. 'I just sometimes feel I don't know what I'm doing, and there can't possibly be anybody who wants to come to these shows,' Amy admits. 'For me, doing a show that size after all that time is crazy. I've sold it out before and had to be talked into it, and the same again this time. When it sold out, I was completely taken aback. 'We've added on an extra show, which I initially said no to. I thought it would be too risky. But my management and band all said: 'Let's do it, it'll be great!' 'Even now, I'm still nervous about doing these shows. I think it's because it's a hometown show, it's special and you want it to be perfect. 'When I do gigs in Scotland, I'm way more nervous than I am anywhere else. You want to make people proud – it was these people who first gave me a leg up and allowed me to have this crazy career. 'I'm very patriotic and always have been. We have so many amazing artists here and we don't shout about it enough. It's really special to have that support at home, it means more than anything else.' © Olivia Rose It's not just the music that fans love, but Amy's social media output too. During Covid, she developed an online following for the funny, warm-hearted videos she shared online. 'I still get really embarrassed talking to the camera,' she laughs. 'I need to make sure there's absolutely nobody else about when I'm filming them! 'During Covid I got really lovely feedback from people, so I did more of it. Even now, I think: 'I'm just filming c*** here,' but people respond and say: 'I really love your videos.' I do day-in-the-life videos, and my best friend messaged me to say she really looked forward to them! 'People seem to like them. Maybe because a lot of stuff on social media is so polished, whereas I'm not polished at all. Maybe it's refreshing to see someone who doesn't have crazy skills that are elsewhere on the internet!' Despite her wins on stage and on social media, true success for Amy is somewhere closer to home. 'I think to me, success is just being happy and having your own time and space to do what you like,' she says. 'I think in the modern world, we've romanticised this notion that we should be busy and working 24/7. You see people online saying: 'Oh, my schedule is so busy today,' as if it's a good thing. 'I think the older I've got, the more I've realised that success is being able to spend time with your family and your friends and not be stressed. I feel very content right now. You can be constantly striving and thinking: 'I need to have a No. 1, I need to be selling out stadiums, I need to do that to be successful,' and I don't think that's true. I think there are way more things that equal success rather than being at the top of your game all the time.' © Shutterstock For now, Amy is excited for fans to finally hear her new music. 'After all this time, that I can still come up with songs that mean something to me, I have an emotional connection with and I can play for fans… that's really special. 'When I listen to the album, I'm really proud of it. It's a good collection of little short stories. I'm very, very happy with how it sounds. I'm just looking forward to people hearing it now!' I ask Amy if her friends and family got an audio sneak-peek before it dropped on Friday. 'I like to keep it under wraps,' she explains. 'When you play new songs for people, they don't always get the etiquette! They talk over it! They might be complimenting the song, but they are still talking over it. So I tend not to play them for people because I know it will annoy me! 'My mum, dad and husband get to hear everything though – it's been years for them, so they get it. They're always supportive, but they love it. 'My mum is a hard nut to crack and is always very honest, but she's been very complimentary this time round!' Size does matter for gigs Amy Macdonald has played in front of every possible crowd, from massive festival audiences to small, intimate gatherings. But her favourite place to play is somewhere in the middle. 'There's something incredibly exciting about going out to a huge festival crowd,' she admits. 'But you can't have that close connection you have in a smaller venue. 'I think I like somewhere right in the middle, at theatre size. They are perfect to play because they are bigger, but it doesn't feel that you are all on top of each other. 'You have space on the stage, but you can still see the audience and feel that you are connected with them. I think I prefer that as an audience member too, somewhere in the middle of a big and small crowd. © Shutterstock 'I love playing in the Barrowlands, which is that size. Everyone says that, but it feels special. It's about 2,000 people and you can see them all. 'It's the excitement of being in such an iconic venue, too. Everyone is buzzing to be there and are really excited for the show. It just feels like there is magic in the air.' Amy has already done a few shows to promote her album, but insists touring is not as rock'n'roll as you might think. 'There's nothing worse than feeling rough as anything and trying to do a gig!' Is This What You've Been Waiting For? is out now.
The Herald Scotland
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Turns out, Gen Z does not rule TRNSMT music festival any longer
I'm told Friday had drawn the typical TRNSMT teens, baby-faced and full of booze gulped down in hidden corners of the Merchant City before entering. But today, the little rascals seem few and far between. Between sets, clusters of festivalgoers compete over spots to languish in the shade and wait for another cooling gust to brush past. The average age is surprisingly higher than I expected. And it is simply too hot to binge drink anything but water, unless you want to be wheeled out on a stretcher. TRNSMT in Glasgow Green (Image: GT) Today's headliners are Biffy Clyro, Fontaines D.C. and The Kooks. Around midday, an alert dings on mobiles across the festival, teasing a secret act from 'Mrs Rock n Roll' was pending before Amy Macdonald surprised fans in The Hangout. The tiny stage was overflowing with hundreds of revellers craning for a glimpse of the Bishopbriggs-born singer. Other acts across the day included Inhaler, Jake Bugg, Brogeal, Hot Wax, and Biig Piig, among others. I spot more Irish tricolours than saltires wrapped like capes around revellers. The lineup today is heavy on the Celtic rock with Brogeal playing the King Tut's Stage and Fontaines D.C. taking the penultimate slot on the Main Stage ahead of Biffy Clyro. Inhaler, the Irish band fronted by Bono's son Elijah Hewson also played the Main Stage in the afternoon. Fans at the festival (Image: GT) Shade is weclome (Image: GT) I feel a sense of dread when it's time to get something to eat. I resent that attendees are not allowed to bring their own food into the festival. Pounds don't stretch that far behind the festival gates. Fortunately, the festival's handy app has all of the food offerings (pricing included) programmed in. It means I can save my energy for dancing, rather than wasting it wandering aimlessly under the scorching sun looking for something to eat. So fish tacos it is, three for £12. Decent, but I'm still hungry. Of all the acts playing today, I'm most excited for Fontaines D.C. It is remarkable to be able to see them a week after they played their biggest-ever headline show at Finsbury Park in London alongside Irish rap trio Kneecap and Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. Kneecap were supposed to play TRNSMT on Friday but was dropped from the lineup in May amid an ongoing police investigation into one of its members. Fontaines D.C. are undoubtedly the biggest band of a generation. That many people had come to the festival today just to see them was clear. Everywhere you looked, there was a nod to the award-winning band, from Romance heart tops to the coveted football jersey that guitarist Carlos O'Connell designed in collaboration with Bohemian FC. When they finally take the stage on Saturday evening, the band's unwavering solidarity with Palestine is put on full display. Chants of 'Free Palestine' echo throughout the crowd during quiet moments in their set. Later, I discovered that two teenage boys, aged 16 and 17, were rushed to the hospital after becoming unwell at the festival. In a separate incident outside the main gate near Glasgow High Court, another teenage boy, 15, was treated by medics after being attacked. So not completely without incident, but a welcome change from the volume of arrests witnessed in years past. Overall, police said there were just four arrests on Saturday. Offences included breach of the peace, possession of a knife, drug offence and breaching curfew. Glasgow is lucky to have a huge city festival like TRNSMT. With ticket prices to concerts soaring higher each year, festivals offer people the chance to see a variety of new and established acts for a decent price. As a UNESCO City of Music, it was nice to know that the festival is not just for the youth anymore. This year proved that millennials and beyond can find their place at the festival.
Daily Record
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Amy Macdonald to play surprise TRNSMT set today after releasing new album
The Record can reveal the 'This is the Life' singer will take to the stage at 6pm today. Chart-topper Amy Macdonald is preparing to perform an unannounced music set at TRNSMT later today. The Record can reveal the 'This is the Life' singer will take to the stage at 6pm today to perform a 40-minute set of her best-known songs as well as a couple of tracks from her brand new album. The singer, 37, is back with her sixth long player, Is This What You've Been Waiting For? which was released on Friday. Organisers have reserved the slot for Bishopbriggs-born Amy on the Hangout stage under the moniker 'Mrs Rock & Roll'. Insiders have now confirmed Amy will take up the spot. Last year, Travis drew a huge crowd when they performed in the same Hangout area Amy will perform a semi-acoustic set as part of a trio. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Exclusive to over 18s, The Hangout area is a chill-out zone with Bongo's Bingo, high-energy ceilidhs, Drag-aoke and banging DJ sets, pub quizzes, buskers, and more and hints that 'you might just stumble across a secret set from one of your favourite artists' at TRNSMT. Revellers have been basking in the sunshine and sounds as the summer heatwave reaches fever pitch. Scotland's biggest ever music festival has coincided with soaring temperatures at Glasgow Green and across most of Scotland. The wall-to-wall sunshine has seen some music fans struggling to cope in the heat but they turned out in their thousands to give a raft of top acts including headliners Fontaines D.C, The Kooks and Inhaler all ready to receive the warmest of welcomes. Sophie MacGrain, 22, from Falkirk, media journalism graduate, said: 'We've been loads of times. I've been coming since I was 16, so quite a few years on the trot. I'm looking forward to seeing Inhaler. Tomorrow, I'll be looking to see Gracie Abrams. It's so hot. The water stations have helped a lot and we are trying to stay in the shade as much as possible. It makes it when it is a nice sunny day.' Saturday's main stage will come to a close with headliners Biffy Clyro before a full package of music entertainment brings the festival to a close.
North Wales Chronicle
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
An Englishman in Newport – Sting wows Isle of Wight Festival
Wearing a white T-shirt and tight black trousers, the 73-year-old raced straight into fan favourite Message In A Bottle which got the crowd singing along. Half way through his one-and-a-half-hour slot, Sting said to the Newport audience: 'We are delighted to be back at the Isle of Wight festival, it's a historic festival. 'Thank you for inviting us.' After bounding through An Englishman in New York, Walking On The Moon and Every Breath You Take, the band went off before returning for an encore of Roxanne which the crowd enthusiastically sang along to. Sting then finished with Fragile, the only acoustic song in the set. Other bands taking to the Main Stage on Friday included Lottery Winners, Amy Macdonald, The Corrs and Faithless ending the night while Clean Bandit headlined the Big Top. Some 55,000 partygoers have crossed the Solent to reach Seaclose Park in Newport for the four-day event also being headlined by Stereophonics and Justin Timberlake. John Giddings, who has run the festival since re-launching it in 2002 following the legendary events which ran from 1968 to 1970, has said he goes with 'gut feeling' when choosing the acts. The 72-year-old told the PA news agency: 'You want to book acts that have a catalogue that's going to entertain an audience for an hour, hour and a half, and, secondly, someone who's capable of performing to an audience of 50,000 people in a field, because they need to be able to project to entertain.' Other acts performing during the weekend include The Script, Jess Glynne, Supergrass, Example, Busted and Texas.
