Amy Studt's debut album 'False Smiles' brings a real smile to my face whether I'm depressed or hyper!
Amy Studt was built up as the UK's version of Avril Lavigne, i personally found this to be an insult to her talent as i don't particularly like Avril's style as it seems to have gone down after the first few songs.
*Ducks lynching from Avril Lavigne fans! *

Anyway
Ok, I like this album because it's never failed to put me in i can do anything I’m Ms Independence mode, [mother's a control freak, i like to dream! ;) ]

Superficiality showing through here, I’m going to review the casing before we proceed to the hidden talent within ;) You can see that the front cover has a rebellious looking portrait picture of Amy, the rest of the album is white, back cover has the track list with a picture of a tatty blue dress on a hanger suspended in the air against a pure white background. The CD is white with a white rose on it, which looks as though it's started decayin, covering about a quarter of the CD total, on the opposite the title! th place behind the CD has a picture of a dead/dying white rose on it. maybe the message is beauty dies, the remains are still majestic, honour them? who knows lol!

TRACK LIST:

1. Just a little girl (3:42)
2. Misfit (3:28)
3. Under the thumb (3:48)
4. If only (3:50)
5. Beautiful lie (4:27)
6. Ladder in my tights (3:00)
7. Carry me away (3:55)
8. Happy now (4:07)
9. Gonna be fine (5:20)
10. Superior mind (3:50)
11. Going out of my mind (3:40)
12. Seconds away (3:54)
13. Testify (3:22)
14. Nobody (3:43)

Overall Rating: 4/5

Feelings on these songs

1. Just a little girl (3:42)

This was Amy’s debut single, mixes soft tone with a defiant chorus. She’s trying to assert her whilst people still treat her as a child, ‘Just a little you see’-that’s all they see to her, but there’s ‘a hell of a lot more to me!’

2. Misfit (3:28)

‘Anything you can do, I can do better!‘ The main feeling of the song is that she doesn’t fit in, but she’s cool with it, you’re superficial, I’m a misfit, but baby that’s ok. She’s rebelling against the stereotypical natural hierarchy of teenagers-where everyone is in a ‘group’/has a ‘label’. What I’d call a feel-good song, it’s uplifting because the fast beat makes your heart beat faster as a response so you feel more energetic and alive4, so it’s a good dance track as well! :)

3. Under the thumb (3:48)

This song has a melodic, balladic background to the verses, but the chorus is full of angry rock chords! The lyrics are both self-reprimanding and giving the guy what-for. It’s a good song for anyone feeling low due to have been played by anyone, boyfriend/girlfriend. I definitely recommend it for a girly night out on the tiles, a group dance when a player has crushed a mate. A guy was just literally playing with her, games not love, and she was just a diversion for him. I think that the chorus is her out letting all her frustration and anger at that guy ‘Did I ever even cross your mind?’ ‘What a waste of me’

4. If only (3:50)

Full of longings for ‘someone to need me, someone to care for, someone to share with, someone to stay with, someone to lay with’ this is a common feeling among us teens, and well any age group who feel the need for ‘their’ person, their other half of the whole. As is fairly typical, she blames herself for the lack of her soul mate ‘tired of being me’-everyone else is in a couple <don’t you just hate the feeling? > ‘How long will it be-e-e-e, till I can let go?’-Whether that’s let go of her life or just the loneliness don’t know, it may be she wishes to let go of her ‘self’ the part that keeps her single.

5. Beautiful lie (4:27)

This is a song I am frequently dancing to in my bedroom, usually when I'm getting un/dressed! ;) lol, I love it because it touches me, I can relate to the situation. A mate of mine was in a bad way a few years back. I love the third verse cause it’s…cool!
It’s one line sung, the counter-opposite to it whispered in the background, which reminds me of conversations with this mate, I’d say one thing, and privately think another!

I can feel you
>I can't feel you
I can hear you
>I can't hear you
I could help you
> I can’t help you
It’s a beautiful lie.
Lost in silence, trapped by violence, then a haunting, high note.

6. Ladder in my tights (3:00)

Rebellious, full-throated independence! Starts with a drumbeat that sounds like the beginning of We will rock you, duh duh dush, duh duh dush, duh duh dush. Yeh? Yeh? Yeh? Dare to be different, and don’t worry about it! Being perfect isn’t it for her ‘who gives a ------ if whoops you ent shiny n perfikt?’ she says ‘there’s a little bit of psycho in me, I confess’ admittin to the undesirables within and showin she don’t care! It’s great to dance to because it makes me feel free to do/be/wear ;) what I like!!!

7. Carry me away (3:55)

Soft, dreamy, light, spacey music that I can imagine swaying on the dance floor with that guy. ’Come and embrace me, my sweet lullaby’ It’s not slushy, it’s just ‘carry me away’ music, you go to an alternative universe, you relax and unwind and share special moments. ‘Carry me far away from my troubles tonight’ whenever I listen to this, I feel happy, relaxed, and in the mood for a snuggle, often it’s about two in the morning, so I make do with my big, cuddly bulldog teddy that a really sweet guy got me for my sixteenth birthday (I’d been teachin him English and he came along to the ice-skating and held my hand all the way round! His first time ice-skating, I still remember his death grip on my hand! )

8. Happy now (4:07)

It’s a song about some one playin games with you, and final betrayal, no recrimination against the betrayer, just listless questions, ‘are you happy now? Now that you’ve had me and I’m on my own, all alone, are you happy now?’ ‘I had so much to give, but you didn’t have to take it all’ ‘the pain I’m left with, I’m wondering, are you happy now?’ The endin is particularly apt, ‘happy now, guess you could say, I’m happy now, we’ll meet again, some day some how, but then, look…who’s…happy … look…who’s…happy…look…who’s…happy…now’ people move on from the pain, the betrayer is left alone. The chords and voice are simple but powerful, she sounds so listless, but her voice doesn’t sound weak, just muted, umm, I dunno, not watered down, just full of feelings that are down.

>It sums up my feelings about how a mate hurt me real bad, and seemed to be so happy about it, a week before the exams, and she tried to screw me over, and I don’t know why. But I’m happy now, and she don’t look it no more! Heehee!

9. Gonna be fine (5:20)

Best mate song! Seriously! You have a mate that’s down; try playing this song in the background as you talk. I listen to this, and it’s like I hav my three/four bestest mates ever, wrappin me in a massive hug and telling me it’s gonna be fine! The gentle tones and positive lyrics are soft, warm and comforting, just like a hug! :)

10. Superior mind (3:50)
Can dance to this but the beat’s bit slow. This song’s about how the world’s stuck in a rut. ‘Losin my faith, make the hell we have to live a universal truth’ askin the same questions, keep on fightin the same kinda wars, it’ll never change/make sense, we need to improve our minds to get any better. Good message but not one of my faves

11. Going out of my mind (3:40)

– This song starts with that really annoying answer phone message ‘Please leave your message after the tone’ (beep) this is a song trying to cope with someone avoiding them and not speaking to them, a girl’s trying to talk to someone who’s just stopped talkin to her. ‘You’ve changed and didn’t care’ she starts off soundin needy because she says hey you, it’s me again, implies intimacy because she doesn’t need to identify herself, but the again and her depressed soundin voice, it’s sounding like this is the fifth or sixth time she’s called, and he’s not answering. She’s feelin bereft, and upset, and she doesn’t know what she’s done. ‘The least you could do, is to talk this through’ because the biggest question on her mind will be why? ‘Guess I think more of you, than you do of me, and that’s not how I want this to be’ she’s getting a bit peeved that he’s just, stopped, it’s annoyed and upset her.

12. Seconds away (3:54)

‘Love is all and love is none, but it changes everyone’ ‘it’s fragile, precious’ this is a song to listen to with a lover/partner that won’t run away at sign of commitment! Husband/wife/fiancé (e) etc. it’s soft and sweet an make me feel of the times I was wrapped up in someone’s arms and held as if I was the most precious being in existence. ‘What a beautiful day to get lost in the dark’-hide from reality and spend day with sweetheart?

13. Testify (3:22)

Med beat for the verses contrasted with a faster feel to the beat for the chorus. She’s been putting herself down for too long and she’s gonna ‘testify’ to put things right and she’s gonna change it. Two sides, I’m scared, and the other, c’mon, testify! Good to dance to if you ignore the lyrics, which can sound a bit, well, weird for want of a better word! Final words - ‘I’ve been fighting myself for too long and I’ve been, hating, myself for too long ’

14. Nobody (3:43)

Depression sufferer. ‘Nobody knows, and nobody cares, that I died on the inside…nobody, but you’ not absolute depression, she has a single strand of hope left. ‘All the things that I hate, I hate about myself, and I need to cleanse my soul.’ She is singin this with deep passion, no, a voice brimming with emotion, but nothing flamboyant, she’s got dark emotions swimming in the sounds in the song. This song makes me ‘watch’ a video inside my head, she standing in the shadows, grey light is all around, we can just see Amy, she’s 50% visible to us, talking/singin to this silhouette next to her that we can make out the basic form of, but no details, no obvious gender give-aways, but we can see Amy singin to them, and relying on them, and how many of us hide in the dark with one other person knowin and bein there for us?

>I would like to point out her that I often listen to this CD in my ‘freetime’ when I’m dropping off to sleep so can’t analyse the end one’s too good< :s

Marks

1. Just a little girl 7
2. Misfit 8
3. Under the thumb 7
4. If only 9
5. Beautiful lie 10
6. Ladder in my tights 9
7. Carry me away 8 1/2
8. Happy now 10
9. Gonna be fine 9 1/2
10. Superior mind 6
11. Going out of my mind 8
12. Seconds away 8 1/2
13. Testify 7
14. Nobody 8 1/2

Overall Rating : 8

Additional info:

Availability-could be hard to find as this came out last November, any decent and well stocked music store-HMV, Virgin, Sanity, and of course, Tesco's n other supermarkets!
Price-anything from £15.00-three CD's for a £1 >don't you just love the markets ; ) <

******************************************************
INFORMATION ABOUT AMY STUDT
FULL NAME-Amy Jane Studt
BDAY-22 March 1986
WHERE-London, England, United Kingdom
GREW UP IN-London and Bournemouth
FAMILY- Her father was a violinist and a conductor, and he toured with Roy Orbison,
Her mother was always head of the music department in a school.
She wrote her first song at the age of nine
And when she was 14, she had written 42 songs
Her website is http://www.amystudt.com/flash.htm
<Beware of the font, it’s really difficult to read :(>
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ok, well this is the first 'real review' i've ever tried to do, it's taken me the best part of a week to do, mainly cos i couldn't get on the computer long enough!

hope you guys enjoyed it,

>kisses to everyone who deserves them, and for all those who don't..? *evil smirk* lol

luv u lot,really!

loadsa luv, me!