“As a body of work, I’d say [Other People] is a collection of songs that are cutting, full and direct,” Donna Amini says.
Donna Amini has reached a sonic peak with Other People, a sprawling sophomore album that marks the Sydney artist’s newest batch of music since 2019. The 10-track project is entirely self-produced, and features the lead single Pilots.
Carried by rich instrumentation and Amini’s ever-lush vocals, the standout song is emblematic of the remaining tracklist, which brims with charm and creativity and charts a new era for Amini in her purest form.
Fellow highlights include Big Machine, a transcendent pop-rock cut that enlists bassist Wade Keighran, who himself joins a starry list of bassists ranging from Jon Zion to Tobias Priddle, with Nick Collerson on the drums.
The sunlit feel of that track is felt all throughout Other People, with Suburban Surf coasting on fuzzy guitar melodies and Modern Shit brimming with groovy basslines.
Elsewhere, Amini heads to grungier corners on She Said, a garage-bound cut that sees the singer pine for someone to “be mine for a day.”
While it’s bound by a rock feel, Other People is a showcase of the singer-songwriter’s versatility, from the screechy guitars of Love Me to the thunderous slow-rock of penultimate track Hell.
Amini’s vocals are at their most angelic on closer Bowie, a shoegaze-flecked number that marks a worthy conclusion to the artist’s journey throughout Other People.
“The title Other People relates to the false idea that we are somehow separate from others,” Amini explained in a press statement.
“The entire album is an abstract presentation of how we look at the world through the lens of our own personal culture and traumas.”
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The album was first recorded alongside a live band in 2017, but underwent a years-long process of tinkering with the infusions of synths, effects and bass sections.
“The songs were built up and moulded over time,” Amini said. “It took a long while, but I didn’t stop working on them till they sounded exactly how I imagined them to.”
The meticulous attention to detail evidently paid off, as Amini delivers her best work to date and all-but secures an audience of longtime and new fans alike.
Listen to Donna Amini’s latest album Other People below.
