Album Review by Mark Bayross
The New Amsterdams are fronted by ex-Get Up Kids singer Matt Pryor and STORY LIKE A SCAR comes across as a deeply personal album. Recorded in Nashville and opening with the acoustic THE DEATH OF US, this is a short and sweet distillation of what it means to search for yourself and to find your small town roots.
BAD LIAR may be about the acrimonious experiences that chronicled the demise of his former band, but songs like TURN OUT THE LIGHT and A SMALL CRUSADE will chime with anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in their own surroundings or who has needed some solitude to discover who they are.
STORY LIKE A SCAR is full of pretty melody and lo-fi introspection, although its understated nature initially makes it seem lacking in substance. Give it time, however, and it’ll grow on you, building over the course of the album into something cathartic and heart-warming.
