Amanda Leigh

Background and music

In October 2008, Moore posted live videos of three new songs she had been working on with singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist Mike Viola on her blog. Fans speculated about a possible album featuring both artists.

Recording sessions for the album took place around December 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts.

It was announced in February 2009 that the new album was to be released in May by Storefront Recordings, a new label founded by Moore's longtime manager John Leshay. Moore again worked with Lori McKenna, who co-wrote three songs on her 2007 album, Wild Hope.

The album's music variously channels Todd Rundgren, Joni Mitchell, and Paul McCartney. According to Moore, "The music is all a reflection of me now, not somebody else's choices."

Tracks

The album opens with the song "Merrimack River", which, according to Moore, she knew it was exactly the way to open the album, indicating the lyrics ("restless to begin a wave comes crashing in"). The next song, "Fern Dell", was among the first batch of songs recorded for the album. The song, according to the singer talks about first impressions and how they can change and affect your world. The third track is "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week", which also served as the only official single released. About the song, Moore says "it's a way of owning and acknowledging your sense of worth in a rather tongue and cheek manner". The fourth song, "Pocket Philosopher", is about "the excitement of meeting someone new and wanting to stop time so you could figured them out a little more". The fifth song, "Song About Home" talks about the struggles that there might be between the definitions of home when you are a child and when you have your own family. "Everblue", the sixth song on the album, is the last survivor of the 6 or 7 songs written by Moore and Lori McKenna. The song, though being heavy, has a comfortable, resigned sadness. The seventh song, called "Merrimack River (Reprise)" is an instrumental interlude which resembles the first song of the album. "Love to Love Me Back", the eighth song of the album, is a country-oriented song which talks about loving and being loved back by someone who is capable of having "two way conversations" and someone who "can handle any situation". The song was also the first song written by Moore along with Mike Viola and Inara Georgre and it became "instant driving force in shaping what the record turned out to be". "Indian Summer", the ninth song is described by Moore as "the one song that carried severe demo-itis for me". The tenth song of the record ("Nothing Everything") was the last song written for it. The song is about telling someone that maybe it's time to move on and that you feel that the person deserves the best, and you are not it. According to Mandy, Viola was working on the melody for a few days, but the lyrics were written in fifteen minutes. The name of the last song of the record "Bug" came from Moore's nickname given by her husband, the singer Ryan Adams, and she describes it as "something acoustic and simple to fall at the end of the record".

Promotion and release

For the promotion of the album, Moore performed an exclusive concert for the winning town of the "Love at First Sniff" competition on Gain's official site. The town that has the most stories placed on the website wins the competition and gets the concert hosted there.

Moore visited many talk shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On both shows she performed her new single "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" to promote the album. On May 26, 2009, she performed her new songs at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, together with Mike Viola, the day her new album set to be released under her new label Storefront Records.

On March 17, 2009, her first single for the record "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" was released for digital download on iTunes. This was the date of the pre-ordering for the album.

On March 17, Moore's official website shared clips from all the songs from the standard edition of the album. New songs, "Fern Dell" and "Love To Love Me Back," were made available for streaming at her Myspace page a few days after. However, the song is not yet included in her vevo channel.

According to a post in a blog on her website, it would be released digitally globally on September 29, a little more than four months after its initial release.

The album was released in Brazil on June 28, 2010.

The album was released in Argentina in November 2011.

Reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received a score of 70, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+, stating that it was "much more fun" than Wild Hope and praised the songs "Merrimack River", "Pocket Philosopher", and "Song About Home." The album topped the website's Must List the week it was released.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote the album is a "clean, classy collection of AAA pop."

IGN wrote, "With Amanda Leigh, Moore has succeeded in crafting a personal record that is entertaining, even compelling at times, but isn't weighed down by heavy themes, misguided irony, or complex arrangements."

The Dallas Morning News noted that "Amanda Leigh turns more compelling with each listen...How great that she left the Britney Spears factory behind."

Track listing

All songs written by Mandy Moore and Mike Viola, except where noted.

Commercial

Amanda Leigh debuted at number 25 in Billboard 200 selling 15,657 copies in its first week of release. This is her third highest peaking album to date. It quickly fell to #121 the week after.

The album was released in Brazil and has sold more than 1,000 so far, though it has not charted in any official chart of the country.