ARTIST: Amandine
TITLE: This Is Where Our Hearts Collide
LABEL: FatCat
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 177kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 43min total
RELEASE DATE: 2005-11-14
RIP DATE: 2005-10-04

Track List

01. For All The Marbles             3:15
02. Halo                            3:47
03. Fine Lines                      4:42
04. Stitches                        4:32
05. Blood And Marrow                3:22
06. Over The Trenches               3:44
07. Fathers And Sons                3:18
08. Firefly                         4:44
09. Sway                            3:21
10. Easy Prey                       3:06
11. Heart Tremor                    5:38

Release Notes:

Until recently I associated the combination Sweden and music either
with bubblegum pop, nasty noise or darkest ambient. The members of
Amandine though seem to have lived in southern parts of the USA in
their former lives. Their music, though also inspired by indie pop,
comes probably close to Americana or 'alt country', genre labels
which I'm not very familiar with. In general you can say that
Amadine makes melancholic acoustic pop, and they're quite good at
it.

The album contains rather tranquil, laid-back songs, with clear
melodies and harmonic male vocals. I really like the prominent role
for the piano on various songs, and the atmospheric colouring by
the accordion, violin and banjo. The music on "This is where our
hearts collide" is both emotional and relaxing. My favourite songs
is the first one, 'For all the marbles', with nice female backing
vocals in the moving refrain. At times the music on this album
comes closes to being too sweet and smooth, but Amandine stays just
on the good side on the border. Nothing revolutionary here, but an
honest piece of work with well-crafted songs.

The album is due out on the 14th of November, and is preceded by
the 7" single "Halo", one of the most atmospheric songs of the
album.