This Is Me Now

Amy Diamond从两岁开始就喜欢唱歌，她的第一次登台演出是在她七岁的时候参加一个名为Småstjärnorna的电视节目，并赢得了第三名。2004年，她发布了自己的第一首商业意义上的单曲 “What's in It for Me“，并获得了巨大的成功。这首歌在当年三月份的瑞典流行音乐排行榜上获得了第一的好成绩。但最开始瑞典的电视台拒绝在电视上播放这首歌的MV，因为他们不能接受一个小孩演唱关于成人间的关系的歌曲，但是Amy Diamond并不这样认为，她觉得这首歌曲的主题是关于友谊的；尽管遭到了电视台的封杀，在Amy Diamond和Elin Lanto一起旅行的时候，”What’s in It for Me” 还是在各大电台热播了起来。 借着第一支单曲的成功，Amy顺势于2005年三月推出了她的首张专辑 “This Is Me Now” ，这张专辑卖了150000份，是当时瑞典黄金唱片销量标准的三倍。至此，瑞典的各大电视台终于开始关注她了，截止到2005年底，她总共在20多个电视节目上亮相。 by K. Ross Hoffman Amy Diamond's tricky. She was a young teenager when this debut album was released -- a preteen, in fact, when some of it was recorded (though you'll have a hard time believing that when you hear her big brassy voice; and the cover photo makes it look like she's about six.) But her recordings are certainly more sophisticated than you would typically expect of "children's music." And -- unlike the bulk of pop made by (and for) teenagers -- neither do they attempt to mimic the forms and themes of "adult" pop, at least not in the familiar manner of teen-centric rock, R&B, and dance-pop. In that sense, Diamond isn't pretending to be something that she's not -- but it's still remarkably hard to determine who, exactly, she is, the album title notwithstanding: This Is Me Now may be chock-full of personality in a musical sense, but it's bizarrely lacking in identity. On the opening "Hello!," Diamond invokes Marilyn Monroe, Lady Di, and Martin Luther King, Jr over a bouncy, horn-led skank, announcing a search for a new superstar (and "future millionaire") with the same peculiar, generationally inappropriate sensibility as Hilary Duff pining for "another James Dean." Now, Diamond doesn't go so far as to explicitly recommend herself for the role (though she does reiterate the title rather forcefully), but the suggestion is there nonetheless: it's quite a splashy way to introduce yourself to the world. Actually, she had already introduced herself, and made quite a splash, in her native Sweden at least, with the swaggering, utterly infectious "What's in It for Me," an electronic-tinged pop-reggae tune that finds Diamond castigating a would-be lover for his inconstancy (most disturbing line, coming from a 12-year-old: "You can't have this candy/and keep one foot outside the door.") Once you get used to the idea that her character in this song is just that -- a role she's playing, like the hammy, scene-stealing kid actor she was brought up to be -- you have to admit that she's got the chops to give a fully convincing performance, and her sassy, commanding delivery here makes this the obvious highlight of the album. It's not the only one -- the piano power ballad "Another Day" and the driving perseverance anthem "Champion" (complete with cheerleader spelling in the mid-section) also stand out -- but there's really nothing else as musically compelling, or as flat-out fun. The final two tracks -- faithful covers of Alicia Keys' "I Ain't Got You" and "Tomorrow" (from Annie -- in an orchestral arrangement that brings out all its treacly glory) -- feel like tacked-on bonuses, making the album seem particularly slight, even if they're enjoyable (impressive even) for what they are. Ultimately, they tend to confirm the nagging sense that this is a kid playing dress-up, albeit a kid with a truly tremendous set of pipes, playing in exquisitely tailored costumes.