By Deuce

Granted, Patrick Ames’ latest single, “Young and Amorous”, is part of a two-cut offering that also includes “I Was Thinking”.

But as any reviewer, casual listener, or fan can testify to, it’s just sooo darn hard to get past “Young and Amorous”.

There are some songs that just come in beating, from the very first measure, note, and groove. “Amorous” is no exception in this sense. It drops with just a clean drum pattern, two smidgens of synth work, and sounds right. As in, really right. Anyone can envision the track going in any direction, because it’s as close to perfection as one can find on this side of, well, perfect.

Then, when the live bass opens up, Ames grabs the mic and starts wailing “let’s pretend” with a melody that takes the foregoing elements and makes them better, you see exactly where he’s going. Plus, he’s got those lovely background singers of his coming in and out, sometimes hitting a high note right atop his own, at other times gently cascading with a serenity, and purity, that just begs to be heard.

It was about at the 60 second marker this reviewer made a silent vow to get a copy of this number. Likely it was around the time the bass line, which weaves, dips and soars, lifts the tune up to more unexplored heights.

Such plaudits for “Amorous”, however, shouldn’t serve to take anything away from “Thinking”. The tunes are largely antipodes, with the latter unfettered cogitations over Ame’s acoustic guitar. The sheer starkness of this contrast adds to the richness of his voice, as he discourses on many of the ills plaguing the planet. It’s quite the experience when he kicks the bass in about a fourth of the way through the cut, shakers, claves, or some other percussion adorning, and perhaps even adoring, it.

“If we’re not the answer, we can’t ignore the question” he posits. Such thoughts are typical of a track in which thinking is both the motif and the melody, as well as the message and the maundering emanating from the microphone.

One surely can’t go wrong with this one. But for sheer impeccability, give that “Amorous” another run.

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