Amy O
Elastic
Release Date: Aug 11, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Record label: Winspear
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Album Review: Elastic by Amy O
Great, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8.4/10
While the list of good things that have come out of Indiana is long and gloriously varied (The Jackson Five! Kurt Vonnegut! Hoosiers! Babyface! Garfield!), Sleater-Kinney-influenced indie-pop is something that usually brings a foggier, more coastal locale to mind. With her new album, Elastic, Amy O makes a serious case for Bloomington's place alongside cities like Olympia, Boston and San Francisco on the grunge-pop/Riot grrrl-offshoot map. Her finely-crafted, kinetic sound smacks you right in the face with the opener "Lavender Night." Over big guitars and an urgent beat, Oelsner invites us into her private thoughts.
Based on rating 7/10
Elastic is the Winspear label debut of Amy O, the namesake of songwriter Amy Oelsner. Having started recording songs in D.I.Y. fashion in the 2000s as a teenager, she expanded from solo voice and ukulele to a full, plugged-in band by the time of its 2016 predecessor, Arrow. Recorded in her adopted base of Bloomington, Indiana, that album was mastered by Mike Bridavsky, an area musician and studio jack-of-all-trades (and owner of Internet cat/recording artist Lil BUB).
Based on rating 6.7/10
Bloomington, Ind. singer-songwriter Amy Oelsner describes her new album Elastic as "either her second or her ninth, depending on how you count." She has been making and independently and releasing albums as Amy O since 2004, but put out her label debut with last year's Arrow. Elastic finds her in flux; she is developing a fuller sound and recording at a professional studio for the first time, while still drawing from the lo-fi bedroom pop that defined Arrow and the releases before it.
'Elastic'
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