Fintan McKahey is set to release a new song; Amber on February 11. We were fortunate enough to hear a sneak preview. We recommend you go pre-save this track on all the usual platforms.
This is a calm and gentle love song to the writer’s wife that sounds like he’s thrown his heart and soul into it. His biography confirms that he’s been stuck in a little bit of a rut until this song, and their new baby arrived.
I like the effect on the vocal track – it sounds like it’s been doubled, and the quality and timbre of the lead singer put me in mind of Claudio from Coheed and Cambria (certainly their more acoustic numbers anyway – particularly “Always and Never”).
There’s good development in this radio friendly length song and I found myself nodding as the drums came in. The pedal steel is a very very classy touch and takes this song to a higher level in my estimation.
It’s hard to use pedal steel in something and not sound Country. Amber achieves this and remains firmly in the folky/singer-songwriter genre but without being predictable.
This is a solid, heartfelt number that maintained my interest throughout.
When the guitar comes in alone at the start, it sounds a little thin. It could do with a touch more low end to balance out the frequencies. It fits great once the whole song is underway. Also, when the drums come in, the overall sound becomes just a little boomy which means that the super-warm, quality vocals are just a little lost. These are some tiny adjustments, possibly just my personal taste, and nothing which detracted from my overall enjoyment of the song.
Overall, Amber is a heartfelt and profound love song that is well written, well performed and looks set to do well on the indie/folk market.
We give this track four ears out of five
