It’s been more than two years since Noah Kahan released Stick Season, but he and the record are still ever-present on the radio and the charts. Not to knock Kahan, I like him, too. But Mark Ambor’s debut full-length album seems the appropriate instrument to wean oneself off of Kahan. Their musical similarities are apparent, if not intentional, and Ambor is also currently enjoying the kind of hype that marked Kahan before most of us had ever heard his music. His single “Belong Together” is in the Top 40 of the Billboard Global 200 with over 500 million streams and has peaked at nearly five million a day. That’s massive.
Ambor is no Kahan, although he can be just as melancholy on the surface. Ambor’s self-professed persona is much saner. He handles his pain without chemical cures, gets along with his parents, and finds solace in the natural world instead of apathy. Presumably, those are more relatable charms. So when the Pleasantville, New Yorker starts off his song with a line and a voice that could be Kahan’s (“I know sleep is friends with death / but maybe I should get some rest”), one senses the track will end happily. “Damn, it’s so good to be alive,” indeed! The reason Ambor doesn’t get enough sleep is because he’s fooling around with his lover, not because he suffers from anxiety.
Other songs, such as “I Hope It All Works Out”, “Don’t You Worry” and “Good to Be” are filled with the same selfless optimism. The songwriter understands on a rational level that not every relationship will work out, but he still has that germ of faith that maybe what’s over will never die. Like Kahan, he sings in a slightly plaintive voice to express his hopes. If one heard these tracks from a different room, one might presume they are Kahan cuts because of the similar intonations. However, he’s the Duffy to Kahan’s Amy Winehouse. Mark Ambor sees the blue sky instead of the clouds.
Heck, Ambor even whistles a happy tune when starting a melodic tribute to being irrational. Of course, he’s crazy happy rather than mad sad because he’s in the paradise of love. If this sounds like I am poking fun at Ambor, you misunderstand my intentions. Who wouldn’t rather live a happy home life, have good friends and lovers, and find peace in one’s place in the world? Rockwood was even created and conceived in the basement of Ambor’s home and named for a nearby state work where he used to hang out. The 26-year-old musician does not need to escape his past. There is something nice about the record as a whole.
In “Our Way”, the singer-songwriter swears off the dark times. He prefers the sunlight over the moon, literally and metaphorically. Living for today doesn’t have to mean forgetting the past. Mark Ambor reminds us that suffering isn’t an essential part of real life. Some people go through their years unscathed. That may not be especially dramatic, but just being alive contains enough material to sing about, as anyone who has gone through childhood and adolescence can attest.