The Other Side of Love Sessions

Album Review

Amy Stroup's folk-pop reveries on her full-length album The Other Side of Love Sessions may sound familiar, and not only because this is actually a compilation disc assembled from previously released, digital-only EPs. Stroup has licensed these recordings for use in numerous television shows, so it's possible one may have heard "Hold On to Hope Love" on Brothers & Sisters, Private Practice, One Tree Hill, or Army Wives, while "Quiet Hearts" has had placements in Greek, One Tree Hill, and Pretty Little Liars, and "Backed Into a Corner" in Grey's Anatomy. (Stroup's songs also have been used in commercials for Wal-Mart and eHarmony.) What the music supervisors of these programs heard in Stroup's songs was their low-key, romantic moodiness, doubtless appropriate to many poignant moments on the TV screen. Stroup tends to write wistful lullabies and play them on piano or acoustic guitar, with some other instruments (notably a cello) overdubbed here and there. Over the instrumental tracks, she sings in a sleepy alto reminiscent of Rickie Lee Jones (but without the slurring), reflecting, over and over, on love, as titles like "Love You Strongly" and "Redeeming Love" suggest. The word "Sessions" at the end of the album title is significant in that the tracks seem deliberately under-produced, as if they were demos with the actual recordings to come later. This is also true of the two bonus tracks featured exclusively on the iTunes version of the album, one of them, the title song, actually billed as a demo.