Press
Press for Turn Like the World Does (Amy Allison and David Scott)
CD Review: New York Music Daily- Brilliant Dark Folk-Rock and Americana Duets from Amy Allison and David Scott
Press for Sheffield Streets:
Interview: American Songwriter
One of the 1000 Best Albums of All Time – Amy Allison – Sheffield Streets: Lucid Culture
“The best album by one of the best-loved cult artists in Americana music. For awhile back in the 90s, Allison could do no wrong: her wry, tersely and often wickedly lyrical alt-country albums The Maudlin Years and Sad Girl are both genuine classics, but this 2009 gem outdoes them since it’s a lot more stylistically diverse. And Allison’s finely nuanced voice is at the peak of its quirkily charming power here. There’s a duet with Elvis Costello on her dad Mose Allison’s wry, brooding jazz classic Monsters of the Id, with the Sage himself on piano; the clever litany of bizarre street names in the title track; the metaphorically loaded, wistful The Needle Skips (a tribute to vintage vinyl, among other things); the genuinely haunting Dream World, with its down-and-out milieu; and the bitterly evocative Mardi Gras Moon, its jilted narrator high on pills and booze, losing the feeling in her hands on a night which is unseasonably cold in every possible way.”
Press for Everything and Nothing Too:
“Her best, strongest collection of songs. That’s quite an achievement for someone who already has a couple of genuine classic albums under her belt, The Maudlin Years and Sad Girl.” Lucid Culture – Click here to read the whole review
“Her Hair Was Red is a song for the ages.”
Elvis Costello
“… a lovely world where urban country mixes freely with 1960’s girl groups, jazz standards and a love of the Smiths to create a distinctive, sophisticated treat.”
The Sunday Times
“Amy Allison has one of the most striking voices ever … it makes no difference what she applies that voice to … everything comes out sounding decidedly unique … bloody marvelous.”
Hi Fi Plus
“For those who treasure individuality and the craft of songwriting, here’s a find.”
The Observer
“… a songwriter of rare ability … revealing an outstanding bittersweet pop sensiblity comparable to the Brill Building greats … hugely tuneful and hook-laden … her voice is the perfect vehicle for her exquisitely wrought tales of love and loss. Sublime.”
What’s On
“… a lovely, enchanting album of songs from the heart.”
The Sun
“… poignant and magical … like most things exotically different, when she finally gets under your skin, she is something to be savoured, like a warming glass of Green Chartreuse.”
Maverick
“… a voice all her own … persuasive sincerity”
The Word
“… tuneful writing … gripping personal intensity”
Mojo
“… a voice to be savoured … a grand job.”
Scotland on Sunday
“There’s not a weak track here but arguably the best of the bunch has to be “Her Hair Was Red”, a simple, harp rippling Celtic infused hymn to her grandmother that will simply make you melt … by the time I’d played it all twice, that voice sounded like the most perfect thing in the world.”
Netrhythms
“Her version of Morrissey’s “Every Day is Like Sunday” pulverizes versions by Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant into the dust.”
Uncut
Amy Allison – Turn Out the Lights
Lucid Culture’s pick for best song of 2007 is one of cult artist Allison’s finest – and she has many – a stark and eerily glistening hit that sounds like a suicide anthem but is actually a kiss-off to the music industry:
In my room
Far from the crowd
My bed’s a tomb
My quilt’s a shroud
I’ve had my fill
Of restless nights
I’d just as soon
Turn out the lights
Press for No Frills Friend:
LINK:
From Maudlin to No Frills
By Kurt Wildermuth, Perfect Sound Forever
”… lush, winsome and reflective all at once, with Allison’s evocative, funny little voice providing comfort even as it hints at the tragic undercurrents … her true turf is neither country nor pop, but unlucky love. And her heartworn muse has never before been rendered so breathtakingly gentle.”
No Depression
”No Frills Friend is a gem of despondent, shimmering pop/folk/rock balladry … Combining forlorn (but never sentimental or narcissistic) lyricism with smart, engaging songcraft, NFF is a well-nigh perfect pop confection.”
San Francisco Weekly
”… on No Frills Friend, the daughter of jazz-blues great Mose Allison, continues to make thoroughly captivating music.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
”Pop that bubbles like a lemonade fountain. Amy Allison writes songs of the highest calibre. In another world one can imagine Elvis covering “Don’t String Me Along” or Sinatra crooning his way through “Moonlight on the Mountains.”
Maverick UK
”A blissful blend of indie pop and country.”
Metro Beat
“No Frills Friend is yet another winner. It’s a record that finds her falling hard for pop tunes the end result being one of the prettiest sounding records of the year. Chock full of ultra-catchy, airy melodies buoyed by plenty of sweet guitar strokes, it finds the distinctive-voiced Allison serving up one nugget after another.”
Timeout
“The songs on No Frills Friend are characterized by economy, humor and a natural sense of melancholy that hangs like moss from a tree”
Boston Phoenix
”It is a measure of Amy Allison’s unique voice and fine line in powerpop songs that No Frills Friend and Sad Girl sound like long-forgotten hits.”
The Herald, UK
“Se sings about loneliness, nostalgia, blissful infatuation, the search for truth, even overspending and the end of relationships with wide-eyed longing, and to a wistful and sometimes shimmering skip. Songs such as “Beautiful Night” and “Dreaming’s Killing Me” display an acute lyrical sensibility amidst a plaintive and affecting swing, while songs like “Baby, You’re the One” and the standout epic duet “Moonlight on the Mountains” exude a sheen of pop quality that would see them not only sit comfortably on but enhance the albums of any of the genre’s great females of the past. It has been noted that any of Allison’s songs could well have been or be big hits for any of the more successful crossover artists the country genre has spawned in recent times, if only they were allowed to give them a touch of their own bombastic insincerity. Thankfully here we have them performed by a consummate artist fully aware of all their subtleties, and certainly worthy of all the attention that comes her way. No Frills Friend is a wealth of succinct honesty, genuine emotion, vivid poetry and pure melodic feel.”
Drowned in Sound, UK
“She’s got songs, the vocal depth, and mostly, an instinctive ability to translate the blues and lonesomeness into short, beautiful pop segments.” Americana UK
More Praise:
“She may be an acquired taste, but that doesn’t diminish the moving sadness with which she delivers every syllable.” The New Yorker
“With Allison it all boils down to her voice – songwriting, yes, but also her singing, which is funny, sexy, and smart, often all three at once.”
Bill Friskics-Warren, Nashville Scene
“Each of Allison’s songs hits at an emotional core – one long road of longing and regret or cautious joy and happiness.”
Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun Times
“These songs of heartache and longing are enlivened by an unadorned directness and Allison’s knack for the colorful and telling phrase.”
Nick Cristiano, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The daughter of great jazz-blues singer and pianist Mose Allison tweaks her romantic misfortunes with appealing self-awareness…Allison’s melodies are flat-out gorgeous.”
Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
“She writes what seem to be country songs with the same stylized simplicity her dad favors in blues, but the country part is just an aura, a way to convince you the singer is as unsophisticated as you think her lyrics are until you think some more.”
Robert Christgau, Village Voice
“The new songs show her appreciation for the polished, professional songwriting traditions of both country and pop, both sad and funny, finished and universally simple – and uniformly potent.”
Barry Mazor, No Depression
“Allison has an immediately arresting aural presence and formidable writing skills evident in her simple yet potent lyrics and resonant melodies … she’s a talent to be reckoned with.”
Rob Patterson, New Country
Best Voice – Best of Manhattan 2005
“If Sonny Boy Williamson played English horn, it would sound like Amy Allison’s voice. Some have compared the urban country-pop chantoozie’s pipes to a dobro, a fiddle, a musical saw or a very well-made duck call. But that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s why God put her here: to be the nasal, mournful, short-breathed voice of feeling so lonesome you could cry.
Allison (Mose Allison’s daughter) has performed around Manhattan and Brooklyn for about 20 years. She sings with almost defiant dejection about the misery of being cheated on, of cheating, and of just plain no-reason-needed sadness. “Sad State of Affairs” is a favorite, about a girl with a “rovin’ eye that just won’t quit,” and can’t help hanging out “in some sleazy bar till two.” Allison sings the verses and the punning chorus with such gusto that the sadness becomes somehow positive. It’s Skeeter Davis for our time.”
Best of Manhattan 2005, New York Press
“Already out of the shadow of her boogie-woogie dad by the time of her debut and possessing the most beautifully freaky voice this side of Victoria Williams, Allison’s easily gone from honky-tonk angel to Brill Building pop and gorgeous folk rock.”
Voice Choices, 1/18/05, Village Voice
“One of the top 500 records of all time.”- The Maudlin Years
Elvis Costello, Vanity Fair