Meow! It’s Isobel Campbell, the wonderfully naive once-member of Glaswegian “Chamber Pop”-rockers Belle and Sebastian. First things first: her voice oozes ‘beautiful’ like almost no other contemporary female artist. The pure innocence she radiates and the ability to spell-bind her listeners is what alone sets her apart from other artists in the same genre, and in “Amorino” we hear her develop her sound and identity to heightened levels. Shedding the name of former solo-career project “Gentle Waves”, Campbell has created a record that bears the mark of some sort of a pop soundtrack to 1960s France; mellow, smooth, enticing and honest, she hits the mark again and again with pearls like “Monologue For an Old Lover”, “Johnny Come Home” and title-track “Amorino”.

One of the only complaints I can find with this record is the amount of down-time. There seems to be quite a lot of filler material, which of course just serves to halt the flow of an otherwise well-written lot of songs. The instrumentals give it a stronger sense of “film soundtrack”, but most don’t really work in the context of the pop direction she seems to be heading in otherwise. Dig out the good stuff and you should be fine, though.

Year Released: 2003
Label: Instinct Records
Related Link: Isobel Campbell Official Site
Date Reviewed: 2003-12-22
Author: Andreas