Sam Amidon reviewed
Sam Amidon
All Is Well
(Bedroom Community)
It can’t be cheap to fly from New York to Iceland, much less record there. Maybe that’s why Sam Amidon (“Samidon” from here out) sounds so blue on All Is Well.
Of course, he was called there by Valgeir Sigurdsson to record at Greenhouse Studios, so maybe he didn’t have too much out-of-pocket diming. Sigurdsson, who is more famously known for his work with Björk, probably pulled on his Sigur Rós and Bonnie “Prince” Billy experience with Samidon, who ends up with a better Damien Jurado album than Jurado has pulled off in years. Without fully indulging in chamber pop, All Is Well comes alive with subtle touches of woodwinds, brass, and piano and lends Samidon’s murder-ballad idiom some daylight. Amid repetition of “Saturday night,” “Wedding Dress” actually evokes Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter, while the ensuing “Fall On My Knees” sounds like it’s dying to get back on its feet and feel the dirt between its toes. For those who prefer to spend their nights outside a loved one’s with a loaded pistol on the dash there’s “Sugar Baby” and “O Death,” but I’ll take “Saro” and watching the sun come up over the top of the Earth.
