'A Curious Thing' is the second studio album from Scottish songstress Amy MacDonald, following the successful debut 'This Is The Life'. Here the Glaswegian's songs draw influence from personal experiences of celebrity culture and self-indulgent award winners while allowing raw emotions to prevail on tracks such as 'What Happiness Means To Me.

Throughout the album, a helping hand is provided by long-term fan and friend Paul Weller, whose studio and artistic expertise is showcased on 'Love, Love' and 'This Pretty Face'. The single 'Don't Tell Me That It's Over' is included.

Please note that a small number of customers have reported an issue with this CD whereby the wrong album and track titles are displayed when uploading or playing the songs on their PC. In most cases, the audio content on the CD is correct, but the software used displays the details of another CD.

Please also note: this is an issue with the software used to play the CD, and not a manufacturing problem. Customers are encouraged to try playing the disc with a different software package, or on a conventional CD player/Hi-Fi before returning the item, or contacting customer service. Review This is the year that a lot of female artists, from Laura Marling to Duffy and Adele, will be facing the eternal pop dilemma of what to do on that difficult second album.

Few will have it as hard as Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald, whose 2007 debut This Is the Life sold over three million copies and went to number one in five countries. A Curious Thing, recorded at Paul Weller’s home studio in Surrey and featuring guest spots from the Modfather, doesn’t sound as though Macdonald is feeling the pressure. It is a bold, grand statement of intent, full of songs of epic sweep that build to undeniable choruses, to be enjoyed by the largest possible audiences. It sounds bigger and more ‘produced’ than This Is the Life – there is no sense of the girl from Bishopbriggs recoiling from the spotlight.

That said, there are a number of tracks here about the perils of fame. Of the dozen songs on A Curious Thing, half concern our celebrity-obsessed culture and the cult of personality that Macdonald has witnessed first-hand since her arrival on the world’s stage. On No Roots, she is positive about the rock star milieu.

“This life I lead, it’s a curious thing, but I can’t deny the happiness it brings”; but on This Pretty Face she is less charitable: “I don’t care who does her hair / Or what clothes she wears.” Next Big Thing takes a dim though the sympathetic view of reality TV wannabes and An Ordinary Life is a dig at the Z-list celebs she saw flocking around actor Gerard Butler at a party last year.

On My Only One, she sings, with a weary sigh, “There was a time when the whole world was looking at you... They changed their minds from day tonight.” Finally, there’s the first single Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over –about a pop star she recently saw in full pompous effect. And yet for all that A Curious Thing doesn’t feel bitter or downbeat. If anything, MacDonald appears to have been energized by her colossal success.

The music here is richer and fuller, the hooks more emphatic, and her voice meets it head-on, with stridency and vigor reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan, even Sinead O’Connor. Even a title such as Give It All Up, which could have been drenched in defeat, is resilient, even defiant. A triumphant return. --Paul Lester This link will take you off in a new window