Review Summary: A great album that uses a minimalist approach to instrumentation and thoughtful poetic lyrics to convey emotions in a powerful way.
Amy Cushway is an Australian singer/songwriter, although it is currently unknown how active she is today in music.
She recently deleted her YouTube Channel and along with it, live performances of her original songs and cover songs, such as “The Gift” by the band Angels & Airwaves. On her channel was also a music video of "The Season," which was one of the songs off of her 2012 record, “It’s a Happy City.”
Regardless of whether she remains active in the music scene today the album is very powerful and it is a shame that it will probably never be promoted or have any mainstream success. Although there is currently very limited information about the songwriter online, the album still stands on its own legs. Even in the limited 13 tracks presented in the record, the honesty of the record struck me and I was able to connect with her emotions because of how relatable each song was. Even when the lyrics of the songs are not taken into account the album is still very powerful. It proves that even when you have a limited palate of musical resources, if you have the right mindset and have the will to do it, you can blow the minds of your audience.
The instrumentation in “It’s a Happy City” seems very limited at times. Some tracks such as “A Little Overweight for TV” and “Start a War” feature full instrumentation while other songs, such as “I Won” are as minimalist as possible and sometimes even more powerful than the songs with full instrumentation. Songs like "The Arduous Social Scene" feature roaring electric guitar riffs below Cushway's vocals, proving that she can use both the minimalist and full instrumentation approaches to music to work in her favor.
In some ways the limited instrumentation helps Cushway get her point across in the most powerful way possible. This is demonstrated best on her track “We Do Business.” The instrumentation is limited in the song. The only instrument that is clearly heard through most of the song is the acoustic guitar.
Even without the lyrics, the track seems to portray an emotion of a longing for what was lost in a way that most mainstream pop songs fail to do, even when the singers have a much greater budget and can spend all of their working hours on music. As an indie artist Cushway was able to exceed all of this without the additional resources. The tracks on the album flow together almost seamlessly, for the most part. The only problem I had with the entire album was that some tracks are less listenable than others (such as “Oh Canada” and “Boys n Berries”), but this is only in smaller sections of individual songs.
None of the songs were skip tracks for me and this was one of the few albums I am able to listen to without skipping any songs. Another lesser problem I had with this album, which also is the most difficult part of this review was with the lyrics. The lyrics do not sound bad or out of place or lack power. However, because the lyrics are not as clear as they could be, they often end up not being coherent when someone is listening to them. In other words, it is very difficult to understand what Cushway is talking about in some of her songs. However, this is an aspect that adds to the poetry of the songs, meaning you can listen to them and come back to them later and learn new things about the songs and interpret them differently. I believe the clearest example of this comes in the song “London Lights”.
“I see London having more fun. Breaking news takes everyone. Fight like hell to make the world turn round.”
Although it is not clear what the overall meaning of the lyrics of this chorus is, it still is a very emotional and energetic chorus when it is sung by Cushway. Despite this poetic ambiguity, the lyrics flow together seamlessly and it is clear that Cushway thought very deeply about the lyrics before writing them.
There are varying levels of instrumentation on all of the songs which makes them all sound different, even though many of the same instruments are used and the acoustic guitar is featured on each song. One of the best songs on the record, in my opinion, is the track “Write Back.” The verses and their transition to the chorus was what hit me the hardest when listening to the song.
The chorus when stripped of its context, which is not clearly found in the song, is impossible to understand perfectly.
“I was wrong, immature, call me, call me, quite wrong, hostile, and write back”.
This is another minimalist song. I believe the only instrument used on it is acoustic guitar. It is a sad song, which brought me feelings about living in a world where everything is messed up and being able to do nothing about it.
Another lesser known song on this album which deserves more recognition seems to describe a broken relationship. This song is “I Won”. The instrumentation on this song is very minimal, which works toward the emotion that is pressed forward in the song.
A sample of the lyrics to this song is “And here’s to my favorite line, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened…”
This was a very relatable lyric which demonstrates that a lot of the time we have the power to change situations or to go back to the way things used to be but we choose to do nothing.
Another powerful line on this track is “you said that I was heavenly. How can you expect me to want to turn away, not look back and not think twice, erase your face and move right on?”
This line is relatable for obvious reasons and it also immediately brought forth emotion inside of me the first time I heard it. Even if there were no English language words attached to this part of the song, it would still be almost just as powerful.
After “I Won” there are two live tracks which are not the same quality as the studio tracks but they end the album well and serve as unofficial bonus tracks for the record. These songs are “Oh Canada” (which is actually an original song) and “Boys n Berries” which although they do not reach the high quality of the studio tracks, they are still fun to listen to, although I cannot see them being played on the radio.
Even though this is one of my favorite records, I realize that it might be “hit or miss” for others.
The entire record is still available on YouTube to listen to immediately. It can also be bought or streamed on Google Play and iTunes.
According to Cushway's own words, this is the kind of music that should either mean a lot to you or nothing at all. I agree.
