TBTA: Matt Cardle 'Amazing'

Throwback Thursday Archive: Matt Cardle 'Amazing'

I recently went to see Matt Cardle live, four years after I saw his debut UK tour.

He hasn't changed a bit.

The vocals, the jokes and the love for what he does is still highly evident in his live show.

But we're not here to talk about the gig.

Today I'm going to draw your attention back to 2012 when Matt released his debut album 'Letters' after winning TV talent show X-Factor a couple of years before.

I re-listened to the album in full before the gig and felt the same love for it as I had the first time round. One song in particular stood out this time though and that's the one I'm going to talk about today...

'Amazing'.

I've heard some describe this track as soft rock, I'm inclined to agree.

Lyrically you could say that 'Amazing' is a typical pop love song. But hey, who doesn't love a bit of pulling on the heart strings!

I love the way it starts.

'I had to look inside this fragile heart of mine to find exactly what it was you saw' is the opening lyric of the song.

Initially you hear just Matt's crisp, vulnerable vocal until a soft acoustic guitar enters on the words 'look inside'.

The song stays pretty mellow until the chorus hits. Even then, the build up is gradual and done really well in my opinion. 

A clean guitar slips in to slowly build the texture with what sound like strings or soft synths of some description. Add an electric guitar (albeit a relatively chilled out one) striking chords and this is about how built up the chorus gets instrumentation wise. This is really great as it keeps the song feeling quite personal.

It's only in the next verse that the drum kit fully enters and the guitar part takes more of an 'upfront' role. This helps to keep the song moving and interesting. 

All the while Matt's vocal remains great - the perfect mix of vulnerability and power.

The second chorus is where it all gets a little bit more intense with the addition of backing vocals, really emphasising lyrics such as 'it's kind of amazing how you found me, through all the strangers somehow.' 

This can be quite emotional if you're in the right setting. 

You know when you're in a car as a passenger, driving at night...a song comes on and you just stare out of the window imagining you're in a music video - I feel like this song is perfect for that. 

Half way through, the song strips back to shadow the beginning - just a vocal and the odd guitar chord on a soft background layer of sound. This provides really good contrast after the build up of the chorus that precedes it. 

Overall, 'Amazing' is a great song to sway to and really showcases Matt's vocals in a beautiful way.

Years later, Mr Cardle is set to release his 4th album some time soon and I am personally very excited about it.

Until next time...

@wewantgoodmusic