A curious thing

A curious thing
Amy Macdonald's studio album
Publication (s)	2010
Label (s)	Mercury Records
Genre (s)	Pop , rock
Title (number)	12 + 14
running time	50:18
production	Amy Macdonald Pete Wilkinson
chronology This Is the Life (2007) A curious thing Life in a Beautiful Light (2012)
Single releases February 26, 2010 Don't Tell Me That It's Over June 25, 2010 Spark September 24, 2010 This pretty face October 4, 2010 (UK only) Love love December 17, 2010 Your time will come

A Curious Thing is the second album by the Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald . It was released on March 8, 2010.

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

A curious thing   DE 1 03/26/2010 (77 weeks)   AT 1 03/26/2010 (38 weeks)   CH 1 03/21/2010 (56 weeks)   UK 4th 03/20/2010 (32 weeks)

Singles

Don't Tell Me That It's Over   DE 6th 03/15/2010 (22 weeks)   AT 10 03/05/2010 (22 weeks)   CH 4th 03/14/2010 (16 weeks)   UK 48 03/20/2010 (2 weeks) Spark   DE 58 07/09/2010 (5 weeks)   AT 74 07/09/2010 (1 week)   CH 62 06/06/2010 (7 weeks) This pretty face   DE 49 10/08/2010 (16 weeks)   AT 73 12/10/2010 (2 weeks)

Emergence

A Curious Thing was recorded at Paul Weller's BlackBarn studios in Surrey . The songwriting Macdonald began in early 2009, during a break from her touring commitments. In contrast to her debut, the songs of which were written in one go, she used her old notebooks here. Looking back, MacDonald says of that time that she was very busy during this time and was constantly on tour.

reception

• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the music on A Curious Thing "soft and shiny upper-class pop with a beating heart". He described Macdonald's voice as "passionate," but criticized that it sang a little too often about her encounter with fame. The album achieved three out of five possible rating stars.

• Matthias Denecke from Laut.de panned the album and reduced it to the formula “unambitious, smooth, sterile”. Above all, the lyrics are "poor in innovation", from the third song on the singer seems "somehow lacking in drive".

• Plattentests.de gave it a mediocre rating with five out of ten points: "As much as this album rocks, sighs, dramatizes and conjures up the good and bad spirits of love, all of this takes place in lines that do not really surprise and carry you away." However, despite its partial overproduction , the first single Don't Tell Me That It's Over is an "anthemic pop hit in which Macdonald's voice makes emotionality tangible and exudes pathos in the best sense."

Track list

CD 1:

1. Don't Tell Me That It's Over - 3:14
2. Spark - 3:07
3. No Roots - 4:30
4. Love Love - 3:17
5. An Ordinary Life - 3:36
6. Give It All Up - 2:55
7. My Only One - 3:32
8. This Pretty Face - 3:57
9. Troubled Soul - 4:46
10. Next Big Thing - 3:30
11. Your Time Will Come - 4:32
12. What Happiness Means to Me - 9:21

Hidden Track : Dancing in the Dark (Live in Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen Cover)

CD 2 (Deluxe Edition): Live at Barrowland Ballroom (2007)

1. Poison Prince - 3:40
2. Youth of Today - 4:03
3. LA - 3:47
4. Footballer's Wife - 5:12
5. Mr Rock & Roll - 3:37
6. Mr Brightside - 4:12 ( Killers Cover)
7. The Road to Home - 2:27
8. This Is the Life - 3:14
9. Run - 3:48
10. Rock N Roll Star - 5:07
11. Let's Start a Band - 5:31
12. Caledonia - 2:32
13. Fairytale of New York - 5:48
14. Barrowland Ballroom - 4:40

Song information

The piece Spark , the second, less successful single after the Top Ten hit Do not Tell Me That It's Over , not, as falsely claimed by the murdered boy James Bulger . Don't Tell Me That It's Over is only superficially a love song: the piece is actually about climate change . The rest of the songs are about Michael Jackson , Gerard Butler , Macdonald's grandparents and her ex-fiancé Steve Lovell , who u. a. played for the football club Partick Thistle . This Pretty Face is about the life of celebrities and what happens when they are no longer popular.

The hidden track Dancing in the Dark is a cover version of the song of the same name by Bruce Springsteen from 1984. The bonus CD also contains Fairytale of New York, a remake of the song of the same name, which was released in 1987 by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl . The album title refers to a line in the song No Roots , which says: "This life I lead is a curious thing but I can't deny the happiness it brings." Her mother suggested the title to her in 2010 , which she calls "Rubbish" dismissed. Some time later Prince released the album of the same name, 20Ten . MacDonald told this anecdote at concerts in 2010.

She wrote her song The Road to Home for her father, whom she saw crying for the first time after their dog died. In an interpretation of the song Caledonia (the Latin-Celtic name for Scotland), which was originally written by the Scottish folk singer Dougie MacLean in 1979, she expresses her ties to her homeland.

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Belgium (BEA)	platinum	(30,000)
Germany (BVMI)	2 × platinum	(400,000)
Europe (IFPI)	platinum	1,000,000
Austria (IFPI)	platinum	(20,000)
Switzerland (IFPI)	2 × platinum	(60,000)
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	(100,000)
All in all	1 × gold 7 × platinum	1,000,000

Web links

• A Curious Thing at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ n24.de: Announcement of the new single ( Memento from December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Sources chart placements: DE (Singles) ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. / DE (albums) ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. / AT / CH , UK  
3. ↑ www.amymacdonald.co.uk: Biography Amy Macdonald ( Memento of February 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed June 28, 2010
4. ↑ Emma Godden: Amy Macdonald speaks to The Student Guide! , thestudentguide.com, May 25, 2012, accessed August 17, 2012
5. ↑ www.allmusic.com: A Curious Thing review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
6. ↑ www.rp-online.de: Review A Curious Thing by Matthias Denecke , originally on www.laut.de
7. ↑ www.plattentests.de: A Curious Thing review by Thomas Pilgrim
8. ↑ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/interviews/a244513/amy-macdonald.html, accessed September 25, 2014
9. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ catherineelaine.wordpress.com: Amy Macdonald - The 'Love Love' Tour, Manchester Apollo , accessed October 28, 2010
11. ↑ Amy MacDonald during the performance in Emmendingen on July 24, 2010
12. ↑ http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/music/music-news/2008/02/26/amy-macdonald-s-road-to-home-is-tribute-to-dead-pet-86908 -20331818 /
13. ^ Belgian record awards
14. ^ German record awards
15. ↑ European Record Awards
16. ^ Austrian record awards
17. ↑ Swiss record awards
18. ↑ British Record Awards