Album Review: Ask Me Anything

Jamie McDell’s sophomore release Ask Me Anything is a wonderfully rhythmic and melodious album, each tuneful track has a very warm melody with strong uplifting choruses and beautiful harmonies. The hit pop tune Dumb makes me want to be a teenager again, a well-crafted pop song with a very engaging tune, filled with the attractive and fun tones of Jamie’s sweet singing.

The songs are full of melody and meaning, the arrangements are well-structured and very easy on the ears, they are very catchy tunes with the right amount of complexity to maintain your interest. There is good use of traditional guitar and piano while also incorporating some modern synth sounds. Some of the beats sound a bit synthetic and are a bit too drum machine perfect, but thankfully they are not too thin and tacky. Overall the musical instrumentation is held back a bit to highlight the wonderful sound of Jamie’s singing and the very appealing melody of her songs, which is fine because Jamie’s voice although young and spritely, it also has a very mature and expressive sound with powerful emotions as shown in the soulful ballads Story of John, Moon Shines Red and the remarkably beautiful Wicked Man.

The depth and feeling in the songs are surprising, all are attractive and tempting, and thus highly recommended listening. If you had some pre-conceptions or high expectations of the album I am confident all will be pleasantly surprised.