Always Now And Forever

Always Now And Forever is the debut release from Irish-born New York resident, Amo.

Amo's ambitions run high, so high that he conjures comparisons with Bono's overwrought emoting (The Joshua Tree's 'Bullet The Blue Sky'), Randy Edelman's fraught paeans to love lost, ('Uptown Uptempo Woman' - I kid you not), and even with Hothouse Flowers at their most earnest. But to conjure such kinship ain't necessarily a good thing.

Always Now And Forever tries so hard to find its own identity that it ends up shuffling between disparate states. And yet, such blatant careering across the musical landscape bespeaks of a spirited appetite that's somehow endearing, and refreshingly honest - if a little naove.

'Day By Day' is as naked a surrender to love's trials as open-heart surgery. Built on top of a classic three-chord sequence, it's baldheaded and simple, while 'Coming Home' hints at a songwriting skill that'd do Raymond Carver proud.

But it's the hollows and dips in between such interludes that make you wonder whether you're listening to a tribute to a late '70s maudlin king like Randy Van Warmer. The title track has every slick guitar line, every lumbering drum roll ever dreamt up by Russ Kunkel and Dan Fogelberg. And the opening track, 'One Night Stand', is so goddamn hippie dippy that it'd be right at home soundtracking a Pippi Longstocking revival.

Always Now And Forever is Amo's first calling card, and like a lot of debuts, it owes its genesis to a whole rake of influences. He's searching for a voice that he can call his own. And while he mightn't have found it yet, Amo's a wordsmith and singer with enough raw material to fuel his journey onwards.