Amamelia is back with new single (Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind, from her album The Joy Of Living. And as ever, she surprises.

This track is anchored by an acoustic guitar and reverb-affected vocal combination that retains a folksie air as we are taken on an explorative journey into the potential of sound. There is a vocal delivery that’s comfortable in the soprano range, giving us a haunting melody with the mood reinforced by the reverb added to it. The tune is bittersweet while erring on the sweeter side, reassuringly managing to keep away from sappy over-sugarcoated drabness. It’s actually a compelling little tune.

Amamelia brings in a number of unexpected sounds. I hear a rasp-kind of thing called a frog guiro, some shakers, various other bells and squeaks – which is an unfair and oversimplification of what we actually get – and in a delightfully uproarious way, it marries well and works. I’ll let the artist herself tell us about the inspiration behind it, from the EPK:

“I wanted a kind of far out flower child moment on the record,” notes Amelia. “I was listening to a lot of 60s sunshine pop like The Millennium, Free Design, and Margot Guryan and I just love how evocative some of that groovy 60s optimism is.”

“Originally (Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind was more of a showcase of me synthesising a bunch of weather sounds, but it turns out it’s hard to hear music through an electrical storm, so I had to push a lot of that stuff into the background. Synth thunder is so cool to me, I have always been a huge fan of BBC radiophonic workshop albums so when I finally got a synth with a Sample & Hold (S&H) LFO I was dying to use that kind of random modulation to create more naturalistic sounds. I’m also really proud of the bass tone, I went for a 60s pick bass thing, like Carol Kaye / Wrecking Crew style with a little bit of slapback. Don’t hear it enough anymore!”

I’d like to touch on the rhythm section too. We’ve got a gorgeous, flatwound bassline that’s there at the opening of the song, and together with a sweet snare and full kit sitting in detail in the mix, it’s carrying the track along when it could have descended into a crescendo. I don’t think any of this track was not thought through in granularity, as each piece sits inside and provides a deceptive level of functionality to the viability of the track being delivered in the way it has been, orchestrally and composition-wise.

A very clever track, and hopefully you will give it a listen on the streaming platform of your choice You’ll appreciate the diversity of the whole album and especially the creativity of this single.

Nice job again Amamelia.