Amanda Applewood - Still Smiling/ I Want To Go Back

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

3...according to our Ant on Thu 09 Sep, 2010.

I quite like the cover on this. The picture of younglings enjoying a nice refreshing drink in the sun looks like it could have been lifted from an Enid Blyton book or Bunty. I was hoping to turn the sleeve over and find them all being accosted by evil spirits (you said "attacked by dobermans" you liar! x Brian) but sadly that's not the case. This is SUPER ULTRA MEGA happy folky pop music where Amanda sings "I'm in love with you boy". I wish a girl would sing that to me.. All I get is shit like "Empty the bins" and "go out to the garage and bring the washing in". Surprisingly though I don't mind this even though it's really a zillion miles from being my cup of tea. She has a sweet voice and I'm sure lots of folks out there will be charmed by this little pop number.

OVERVIEW: Still Smiling is the second single from indie pop sensation Amanda Applewood. Also known for playing keyboards and the recorder with The Boy Least Likely To, Amanda woke up one morning and found that she had enough of her own songs to start recording an album. So she did just that. This single follows on from 'Pretend (We're In Love)', which was released earlier this year on Too Young To Die.

Strongly influenced by the Eighties girl pop sound of artists like Voice of the Beehive, Strawberry Switchblade and Kirsty Macoll, the A side fuses a lyric that acknowledges the futility of an office crush with the pop sensibilities of St Etienne at their chirpiest. It was written on a summer afternoon near Frenchman’s Creek and was inspired by the Cornish coastline and Daphne Du Maurier’s heroines. Early demos of the song were fortified by scones and clotted cream and frequent cups of Earl Grey tea.

It comes backed by ‘I Want to Go Back’ a song written after watching a documentary about Dexy’s Midnight Runners. During the program, Kevin Rowland revealed that he had been unable to enjoy his fame because he was so busy being angry with everyone. He memorably stated that he was so furious with the world that he used to “shout in his sleep”, a line that appealed to Amanda and became the basis of this quietly bittersweet song.

Both songs were produced by Bobby Charm and were recorded at Faraway Sound Studios, where the scones and clotted cream were more difficult to come by than they had been in the West Country, but the good company was not.