The Breakdown
‘Amelioration’ is Lutruwita/Tasmanian artist Sam McMeekin‘s second release following her debut EP ‘Tempest’ released last year, and it portends an important new artist from the Apple Isle. While the release has ten tracks, which would normally be labelled as an album, McMeekin says it is intended to be an EP as it is not a cohesive whole and has a variety of sounds. Indeed there is a mix of alt country and indie pop throughout, providing an element of progression and development in style.
The album was apparently written after a particularly intense relationship breakdown, and this seems to certainly seep through the lyrics and delivery throughout the album, which has a heartbreaking elegant beauty about it. The title clearly references resilience and survival: making bad things better and easing the pain. McMeekin says:
I could not be prouder of these 10 tracks, and they feel the closest to myself I have ever been in music creation. I encapsulated every feeling and internal contradiction I felt throughout this time in my life, and the laughter, tears, and breakthroughs it brought me.
Opening with ‘Mental’, the layered vocals are filled with a degree of yearning and melancholia which reveal McMeekin’s velvet soft vocals and a degree of complexity in the harmonies, delivering a thrilling melodically robust pop song that soars.
Second track ‘Tacenda Street (ft. Isaac Haas)’ is a statuesque ballad delivered over a rolling piano filled with a delicate refrain, highlighting again McMeekin’s delicious vocals, in a duet with artist Isaac Haas. Haas, a friend and a pianist co-wrote the song with McMeekin. The voices intertwine beautifully – there is a hint of alt. country in the atmospheric delivery, aching with heartbreak and regret. The song reaches an anthemic conclusion, with elements of Sharon Van Etten in the power.
The tempo increases with delicate guitars in ‘Betting Man’ and McMeekin’s deeply personal expressive lyrics, yearning vocals and another alt country blush. Steel guitars frame ‘Gone’ with an underlying throb, atmospheric and mysterious: an alluring anthemic track with layered harmonies and crunching guitar highlights. McMeekin’s vocals are stunning: exhibiting an extraordinary range from a whispery softness to an abrasive and thrilling roar as she sings of heartbreak, indifference and resilience. It’s a powerful and raw track.
‘End of the World’ steps lightly on the brakes, with a rippling piano and McMeekin’s vocals like a silken veil in a slipstream, highlighted by haunting backing vocals and a hint of strings. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful track expressing aching pain with an atmospheric blush, altogether too short, leaving the listener suspended in a fugue. ‘LA’ and ‘Rinse Reverse’ put McMeekin’s vocal to the fore, tracks filled with yearning and heartbreak with minimal but enigmatic and elegant instrumentation. ‘Gazebo (ft. Alyssa Mitsue)’ has again a country blush to the delivery with a pitter pat percussion and soaring harmonised vocals. Hailing from Melbourne, Mitsue happened to write one of McMeekin’s favourite songs while she was in High School (‘Homesick’) and McMeekin reached out to her to add vocals.
‘Smoke and Mirrors’ coasts along on rippling acoustic guitars filled with melancholy and regret, autobiographical elements to the lyrics and ethereal backing vocalisations. Under the pain and heartbreak there is, in keeping with the album’s themes, an element of defiance and inner strength through troubling times.
Final track ‘Jasmine’ enters with haunting piano splashes, augmented by delicate tinkling in the distance and McMeekin’s delicate and beautiful vocals, harmonies and melodies. it’s an anthemic flourish to end the EP.
‘Amelioration’ is a delicate and beautiful EP enhanced by nuanced and subtle instrumentation that creates a shimmering web of sound behind McMeekin’s extraordinary vocals and putting her songwriting strength to the fore.
‘Amelioration’ is available now and can be streamed and downloaded here.
Produced by Adam Scott-McGuinness at Tiny Giant Studio, the 10 tracks were mixed by both Scott-McGuinness and Byron Bay engineer Dan Frizza.
The EP precedes the start of McMeekin’s first ever national headline tour (including a launch date tonight in Hobart), with stops across Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, as well as festival slots and support shows. Details of gigs can be found here.
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