Album Review: Amy Shark - Love Monster

Love Monster is the highly anticipated debut album from Gold Coast singer-songwriter Amy Shark, unsurprisingly full of memorable melodies, lyrical poetry and pop sensibility.

The album features Adore, the earworm that brought Shark huge success, a global audience, the #2 spot in triple j's Hottest 100 in 2016 and, more recently, performances on popular US late night shows. Every other track on the long-awaited full-length album shares the potential for that same success.

The indie-pop singer has an adept ability to paint a picture and tell a story with clever lyricism on each one of her songs. On the album's lead single I Said Hi, Shark shares her response to the turbulent nature of the music industry with boxing metaphors and on the infectious Don't Turn Around she makes good use of simile with the hook, "Make a girl fly like a bird on a wire". On the latter, Shark expresses a desire to run into someone she has feelings for, almost rapping with the vocal rhythms she delivers over strummed guitar during the song's bridge.

With Shark seemingly unafraid of being vulnerable and exposing it all in her lyrics, Love Monster is full of super-specific storytelling that still seems universally relatable. She's clearly experienced a fair bit of heartbreak and evokes some serious emotions on tracks like The Idiot, the pining, suitably titled The Slow Song, Mess Her Up and the slow-burning, nostalgic You Think I Think I Sound Like God.

In terms of composition and production, Love Monster draws influences from several genres and styles, resulting in an interesting final product, bound together by Shark's distinct vocals.

Shark has an instantly identifiable quality to her music that separates her from other artists. She adds to her sonic palette with some more electronic elements this time 'round, on songs like All Loved Up and the angsty Middle Of The Night, but for the most part Shark sticks to her established formula of layered vocals over acoustic guitars and reverb-laden hip hop beats.

The album only contains one feature, but it's a good one. Shark has been vocal about her life-long idolisation of blink-182 and has had the opportunity to collaborate with band member Mark Hoppus, who appears on album highlight Psycho. The stripped-back, mostly acoustic duet is sweet and has a slight pop-punk feel, and their voices nicely complement each other as they sing about love over fingerpicked, intertwining guitars and crashing drums.

Shark set the bar incredibly high with her breakout single Adore, but has somehow managed to reach it with every subsequent release. Love Monster is well worth the wait and solidifies Shark as a force to be reckoned with as one of Australia's most promising current exports.