- 2025-07-17
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MUSIC
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Amy Macdonald Releases New Album “Is This What You've Been Waiting For?”
Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald released her sixth studio album “Is This What You've Been Waiting For?” on July 11, 2025 via BMG and Infectious Records.
This marks her first album in five years since the 2020 album “The Human Demands”.
She recorded the album in both London and Munich between late 2024 and early 2025.
The album comprises 10 tracks, produced by Jim Abbiss and Nicolas Rebscher.
On the album, she explores themes born from experience, both first hand and by witnessing other people's struggles, spanning toxic friendships, feeling trapped in relationships, and daring to break away from the pressures of social expectations.
Survival and the idea of moving forward prove to be powerful throughlines throughout the album.
Amy Macdonald said, “I feel very lucky to be in the place I am now. I've got this career, good friends, my family, and people still seem to want to hear my music, which is great. There's a realness in me, something raw - honestly I'm winging it most of the time.”- She shared on social media, “I actually find it so stressful releasing an album and have felt under such relentless pressure that I question sometimes why I even do this. I try to be super positive on here most of the time because people don't want or need to see my emotional rollercoaster 24/7 (trust me) and many people have much bigger problems than I do, I am acutely aware of that, and feel embarrassed when I feel bad sometimes.”
She continued, “Last night when I went on stage and saw all these people I had to stop myself from crying. After 18 years of this it still blows me away that so many people want to come and see these shows. This is why I do it.”
She added, “Thank you so much to all of you who repeatedly come along to these shows - to all of you who bought, streamed, spread the word about my new album - I'll never be able to convey quite how much that means.” -
Amy Macdonald explained some tracks for the album.
“Is This What You've Been Waiting For?”
“This song was actually inspired by when they opened The Sphere in Las Vegas - I woke up one day and saw all of these videos of it, and I thought, this is incredible! I was totally blown away by it, and it reminded me of how gigs are experiences. It really inspired me and made me think about how music is for me, and gigs have always been the most important part. But streaming has created the demand for new music all of the time - it's like a constant treadmill. This song is my view on how people always expect more music and social media content.”
“Can You Hear Me?”
“I was playing TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow, and I found myself looking out at the audience, thinking, oh my gosh, these are all kids! They weren't even born when I started making music, they're not going to know me at all. This is going to be awful. And we went out and we played this full set, and it was one of the most amazing gigs that I'd done in my life.”
“Seeing this younger generation, the ones that had just been fucked over totally by COVID, the government... But they were so happy and loving life. And I thought, you know what? We're actually in good hands. Like, what a great flipping group, what amazing positivity. It was one of those weird moments where you get on stage and it really feels like, 'Oh, this is why I do this.' So 'Can You Hear Me?' was kind of a call to arms for the younger generations.”
“I'm Done (Games That You Play)”
“As I've grown older, I've found that I've got a lot better at just saying 'no'. Thinking back to when I first got into the music industry – I was only 17 when I started – I'd find myself in situations that I really wasn't comfortable with, but I felt like I just had to go along with. Now, I say 'no' without even worrying about it, whereas before I might have been guilt-tripped into it. And there's also an element in that where you realise that certain acquaintances in your life don't serve you – they can be toxic and quite draining. Ending them, all I've felt was relief, like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Sometimes we spend so long with these friendships out of habit, and it's not until you're away from it that you ask yourself, 'Why did I put up with that?'”
“Forward”
“I was consumed by the constant bad news cycle, which seems to have been a thing since covid, it's just one thing after another – no jobs, bills going up, another war. So in the past few years, I've actually switched off a bit, because really all you can keep doing is put one foot in front of the other, and try not to get too bogged down by the things you can't control.”
Photo by Olivia Rose - source : Apple Music
