Amelie Lucille - any more (demo) [Review]

About Amelie Lucille

Amelie Lucille is an old musical head on young shoulders. Hailing from New York, and given a head start by attending LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, she's a folk-minded singer-songwriter and guitar player of tender years and prodigious talent, who is rapidly accruing an impressive recorded catalogue, including her accomplished, well-received, self-titled debut album. from 2023. She's also a regular live performer, and has already played the historic Greenwich Village folk hub, The Bitter End. It's an old cliché that it takes ten years to become an overnight success, but I have a feeling Lucille might be on a faster track.

Review

Remarkably, 'any more' is a one-take bedroom recording, and I can't help wondering if she shouldn't squeeze a few of the dining room chairs in there and start selling tickets. It's also a great-sounding recording, that suggests she knows her way around microphones and recording equipment – I've heard worse from proper home studios.

A gentle, somewhat wistful acoustic guitar refrain opens the bedroom door, and turns on a bedside lamp to reveal Lucille head down in reflective mood. The guitar playing has a simple joy, but the magic really happens when her tale starts. Not only is there a purity, but also a sweet, slightly husky soulfulness to it as well - the sort of sound that you know is coming from deep within; it's quite the compelling combination. Affairs of the heart are the order of the lyrical day, but refreshingly, tired clichés are left on the upstairs landing where they belong. And so the song meanders its melancholic yet stoic course, and despite the woes, kindly puts a reassuring arm around the listener too. Just lovely.

If you're in an intimate folk mood then check out Jens Kuross' Crooked Songs album from last year, it's one of my favourites.

---

Playlist Companion

Find Lucille in the Slow Indie Folk Playlist.