Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Well fans you've waited...an'...waited...an' waited. Here at last it is. The declared goal of the album was to catch the "good innocent fun of today's music" and with the help of producers Brown Bannister (four songs), Keith Thomas (two) and Michael Omartian (five) that's what Amy's done, no mean feet for a mother-of-two. There's little of the epic grandeur of 'Lean Me On' some of the tracks here are up tempo synth pop blubblers not dissimilar to the kind of light weight things a certain lady called Kylie offers us. Lyrics too, are often firmly in the "your love is so good to me" genre of standard banalities though "Baby Baby" turns out to be a song about siblings rather than big hunky babies. If all this sounds pretty disastrous you still have that delicious voice which sounds deep and assured even when gliding over the most obvious synth riff and several songs, a couple of ballads and three or four mid tempo numbers which manage to free themselves from the stifling confines of the perceived demands of Top 40 radio. The best of these "Ask Me" has a memorable chorus ("ask me how I know there's a God up in the heavens") which surges like the Amy of old and "You're Not Alone" (a Climie Fisher song) which increases its effect with every play, are one of those swelling production extravaganzas which is beginning to produce the same kind of goose pimples that "Lean On Me" did. Not a stone classic and her lyrics have slipped a bit but it's still a classy set.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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