Amali Ward – Back In Time

Year: 2013

Label: Precious Records

Track Listing:
1. Leave Me Alone

2. Knock You Out

3. Upside Down

4. Victim Of Love

5. Prettier Than Me

6. Come Inside

7. Back In Time

8. Handbag

9. Break The Mirror

10. Black Dog

Subculture Media ‘Amali Ward – Back In Time’ Review:

Most people would remember Amali Ward as the young singer that many of the judges on Australian Idol thought was too young to be there. She proved them wrong and excelled and since her time on the show has gone away finished school and worked extremely hard at becoming one of Australia’s top singers… and she has the song-writing awards to back it up.

Now it’s time for Ward to show Australia (and the world) just what a fine artist she has become, with the release of her debut album ‘Back In Time’, and if you’re expecting just another stock standard pop album then you are in for a rude surprise. This actually will be one of the finest pop albums you hear this year.

‘Back In Time’ kicks into a gear with the smooth ‘Leave Me Alone’, a track that gives an early warning that this is going to be a special kind of album. Those thoughts are then justified with the brilliant ‘Knock You Out’, the new single off the album that is made up of what most pop tracks these days lack… real attitude. It’s easy to tell that Amali Ward has written this track from a really deep voice and the results are sensational.

‘Upside Down’ really puts the magnificent song-writing skills of Amali Ward on show, who else could turn a song about a bad night out into something so poetic. With these kinds of skills it’s not surprising that Ward has the ability to produce an album so good, even average tracks such as the sweet and catchy ‘Victim Of Love’ are well worth a second glance (or should that be listen).

There is a little bit of Alanis Morissette about ‘Prettier Than Me’ which sees Ward take a swipe at sooky guys, but instead of delivering a straight does of venom like Morissette would have Ward disguises it under a layer of sweetness that is very deceiving.

The one thing that Amali Ward isn’t afraid to do on ‘Back In Time’ is genre-switch, she eases between various musical sounds with ease that that is nowhere more evident than on ‘Come Inside’ which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘The Sapphires Soundtrack’.  The title track of the album, ‘Back In Time’ sees Ward once again return to the pop genre and along with ‘Handbag’ really does show that pop music doesn’t need to be generic and boring… these are stunning tracks.

‘Break The Mirror’ is catchier enough to suggest that it one day may find itself on radio station playlists, it’ll certainly have you singing along to it as you listen, while the jazzy swing sounding ‘Black Dog’ is made of some more deeply personal lyrics for Ward. It shows that songs clearly sound better when they are written from the heart.

‘Back In Time’ proves that ‘pop’ doesn’t have to be a bad word, this album alone should re-introduce a faith in this genre to music lovers that have thought that pop music has needed a good kicking for a long time. Imagine the thought provoking lyrics of somebody like Tori Amos mixed in with the sweet pop/R&B sounds of Rihanna and you’re some of the way to understanding what Amali Ward sounds like. ‘Back In Time’ is a brilliant album that really showcases the talents of one of Australia’s most promising up-and-coming stars.