Album Review: Amy Shark Debuts A “Love Monster” of Music
Amy Shark’s debut, Love Monster, has been highly anticipated because her songs feel like pop-infused diaries. Imagine opening up your journal, and having its entries come to life through songs. Your words leaping forward with music notes and pictures of some of your best and worst times in relationships. Shark’s Love Monster feels, exactly, like that.
Sometimes, artists are kismet. From Wet to The Ophelias, this week the ladies are coming forward with pop-rock sounds to describe being close to a “better love”, but never actually getting there. Shark’s tracks like, “The Idiot”, “Leave Us Alone,” “Psycho”, and “You Think I Think” tear into the female sub-conscious of being in a relationship. Whether it be the struggle to love yourself more to love your partner better, or the impact of their waning love on how you see yourself, Shark’s lyrics embody how flaws are born from inconsistencies.
Amy Shark – I Said Hi (Official Video)
We doubt ourselves most because we believe goodness should be stable and constant, but, in relationships, that does not always occur. Their inconsistencies become our chance to get smart and strong. From “Adore” to “Never Coming Back” or “Mess Her Up,” Amy’s voice feels like a vape. She smokes, puffs, and breathes her effervescent vocals like steam radiating warmth upon heartbreak. Frankly, I could not stop thinking of Alanis Morrisette; who has become the quintessential icon for women displaying our vulnerabilities are our strengths, and to embrace them is enlightening. Yet, sonically, Shark does not go all “jagged little pill.”
Amy Shark – ADORE [Official Music Video]
Sonically, Love Monster, actually, feels soft. It may fuzz and throttle a distressed chord into its melody to give of frequencies of someone pushed to love’s limit. Yet, its arrangements pounce and pry the like an organ at church; for however heavy it gets, there is still a light religiosity to her sound. Thus, Love Monster show love is not a monster, but people’s understanding and manipulation of it can be monstrous. For More Information On Love Monster, out July 13, and Amy Shark Click Here.
