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Amanda O'Connor: Walk On By

I caught Amanda on TV1’s Good Morning Show, which does no one any favours except to say that they exist and have an album out. So I am glad to hear this album, a lovingly earnest collection of songs, executed with talent and warmth. The genre is one of those pleasingly inbetween ones, a kind of Kiwi bluegrass or alternative country-folk. The self-penned songs are useful and targeted, yet uncontrived. Any could easily grace a movie or TV soundtrack, and indeed O’Connor has already had some success there. The further down the CD the more I liked it. Starting at track 6 The Milkman, she slips into the voice I love the most, delicate, relaxing and of a remarkably similar tone to Natalie Merchant. It’s sweet all the way from there, even sweeter on my favourite track Child of my Dawn (with a chiming and charming guitar part). There is a little naivete in the way the songs are approached vocally sometimes, but this is the fabric from whence comes the straightforward and always present heart. This is O’Connor’s second self-penned CD, a combination of Taupo and Nashville expertise. www.amandaoconnor.com.

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