Music Review - Amycanbe - Being A Grown-up Sure Is Complicated

An understated lesson in hushed atmospherics and subdued intensity, BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED is the debut album from Amycanbe, an Italian four piece based around the sublime vocals of singer Francesca Amati.

With a fine line in off beat swooning pop, Amycanbe are an immediately jaw dropping experience, and its the voice that hits you first, a fragile and otherworldly entity that brings up comparisons with singers like Emiliana Torrini, Bjork and Stina Nordenstam; a delicate and half whispered croon that envelopes everything she does in gorgeous audio silk.

BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED is a record that hinges a little too much on that voice at times, the songs occasionally creeping into forgettable soft musings that do little to keep you engaged. When she's at her best though, this is a record that enthrals and mesmerises completely; take opening track 24 HOURS for instance, a richly textured wash of gentle guitar atmospherics and beautiful melodies, its like Sigur Ros fronted by Emiliana Torrini, strange, exotic and truly beautiful. TALK A BIT is another mesmerising affair, serpentine guitar licks and an orchestral sweep run beneath Francesca Amati's vocals, a combination of fragility and folk tinged brilliance.

Amycanbe are a band that despite Francesca Amati's sublime vocals, can also bring a certain magic and delicacy to proceedings, take the opening 24 HOURS heartbreaking guitar work or the swirling electronics of TALK A BIT or YOUR OWN THING for examples.

It's a shame that BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED seems to fizzle out a bit towards its later moments, songs such as TOO MUCH WORK, DOWN UNDER and LET ME feel like predictably polite coffee table folk, the songwriting not quite matching up to the rest of the record. It's these distractions that ultimately detract BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED from becoming truly breathtaking, a real shame as with a touch more quality control and tightening, this is a record that would have made a spectacular sounding debut.

Amycanbe are still an outfit that frequently manage to mesmerise and whilst BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED is not without its criticisms and moments of blandness, its a record that in its finer moments offers a magical and majestic look at a band worthy of your adoration, a record with its fair share of genuine spine tingling moments of wonder. A remarkable voice in Francesca Amati and an intoxicating clutch of wonderful songs, Amycanbe teeter on the verge of delivering a true masterpiece; with BEING A GROWN-UP SURE IS COMPLICATED, they come tantalisingly close.

The story of Amycanbe Amycanbe were born in Romagna around Christmas 2002. After one year of rehearsals, Marco and Mattia meet Francesca in October 2003 and all the ideas these two guys had before, started becoming songs. The approach and the musical taste of the trio, coming from different experiences, perfectly mix. Shortly, light but never banal compositions come out from the band. Francesca's singing comes together with simple and measured arrangements. The fourth element of the band, Paolo (wind instruments, guitar and synth) brings strength to all these characteristics. There is a common interest to combine acustic and electronic sounds. In January 2004 the band is settled. After the first live performances in clubs, theatres and bars in Romagna, Amycanbe record a self-produced EP with 5 songs. It attracts the attention of the critics and obtains a very good success. Amycanbe start playing around more, even outside Emilia Romagna, and people start talking and writing more and more about them on websites, blogs and fanzines. Enrico Veronese, Blow Up magazine, places Amycanbe in the playlist of the best debutant Italian indie band of the 2005. In May and September 2005 Amycanbe open for Skin and Yuppie Flu. In July Freequency magazine invites the band on the Roma Rock Festival Stage. In October 2006 they put one of their songs, My ring, in the 50minutes compilation published by Exsercise1 record and distributed in UK by ShellShock/Seriously/Groovy and on-line on ITunes.

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