Annie doesn’t like my band.
:(
She says so, over and over in a song titled, “I Don’t Like Your Band.” Well, then, Ms. Annie, who DO you like? Currently, my best guess would be Madonna. Four years ago, however, when I couldn’t stop spinning some of Annie’s original (amazing) singles like “Chewing Gum,” or “Heartbeat,” I might have had a different answer. Boasting Röykspopp as a collaborator, other similar artists immediately came to mind: Junior Senior, Mouse on Mars, or MATMOS would have all been good guesses. Annie was so refreshing because she took the sounds of the most innovative styles in indie dance and the hippest of obscure labels, and pounced on them with a Diana Ross disco prowess. All this was matched with such a confident, yet fleeting and beautiful voice, not to mention her indisputable instinct for delivering a hummable melody. In a way, Annie was the most exciting thing to happen to dance culture since Daft Punk. Here we finally had another artist who was able to combine smart songs, experimental production, layered textures and thick mixes, and make them really pop out of the speakers with a smile-raising optimism and grace. It was a truly wondrous thing: pop music you hated to love, but mostly loved to love because it was so damned clever and fulfilling; happy and carefree, but also talented and interesting. Annie was like a reminder that pop music at its core is not such a bad thing. It’s just done poorly 95 percent of the time. But the most important thing about Annie: she made us want to--NAY--need to dance.
And lord knows we need to dance like that again. With the recent “glo-fi” craze still lighting up the screens of countless hipster geeks’ iTunes play-counts, it seems that “dance” as a concept has been reduced to occupy spaces where there’s just not a whole lot of dancing going on: dorm rooms, bedrooms, or headphone situations. As hot as a track like Gold Panda’s “Quitter’s Raga” is, I’ve yet to hear it blasting at the hottest club or house party. For this reason, Annie’s latest effort feels important as it represents a fresh and honest run at the club scene at a time otherwise lacking in the genre’s true spirit.
So even though the Norwegian singer’s voice is at its most accessibly simple yet, her work here is nonetheless more than admirable. Annie can still get your toes a-tappin’ and plant those hooks firmly in your cerebrum better than most. “My Love Is Better” is just plain infectious. It won’t go away, which is as frustrating a thing as it is great in that “just get out of my freaking head” kind of way. “Marie Cherie” is a sexy, slinky tune that slithers around with some wet vocals and pizzicato string arrangements all accompanied by a more stripped-down, subdued beat—a nice break from album’s otherwise relentless percussive blast. Meanwhile, the aptly titled “Breakfast Song,” with its street-march stomp and silly refrain, highlights that light sense of easygoing, cute personality that helped make Annie so lovable in the first place.
But these truly great moments are just fewer and farther between with Don’t Stop. Granted, Anniemal is a whale of a debut to follow up, but where that record cashed in on expertly executed, thick and densely layered beat construction with incredible variety on a song-by-song basis, Don’t Stop switches gears to a more squared approach that produces some mixed results. It’s a heavily focused and consistent sound with a constant, unflinching laser-beam dynamic. Songs barrel into you with a face to the floor forward motion, rooted in a Kraftwerk-meets-Moroder rhythmic drive. There’s just something more robotic about the album as a whole as some of Annie’s stretchy, organic undertones are swallowed up by the metronome.
Four years ago, if Annie didn’t like my band, I might have taken her more seriously. With the release of Don't Stop, I’m just not so sure I buy the ego this time around. There can be no doubt that Annie seems completely aware of her talent and what she’s doing, and this only makes roller-rink-ready ballads like “When the Night,” that much harder to swallow given her resume thus far (which is, still, admittedly, very short). As fun as it can often be, Don't Stop’s biggest bummer is that it’s not a step in the forward direction. If anything, there’s something more juvenile going on here, facile and safe. Annie’s talent isn’t in question; it’s the production and song-writing that doesn’t quite strike a chord this time in that neo-sophisticated, adventurous fashion. Instead of rising to the level of expectation she set so high for herself early on and then smacking it out of the park, what we’re left with is a base hit (OK, maybe a double). Four years later, Annie is a still-promising, still-up-and-coming act with endless opportunities for a stardom that can’t be too far off on the horizon.
Track List:
1. Hey Annie (4:07)
2. My Love Is Better (3:19)
3. Bad Times (3:57)
4. Don't Stop (4:10)
5. I Don't Like Your Band (3:25)
6. Songs Remind Me Of You (4:05)
7. Marie Cherie (5:14)
8. Take You Home (4:26)
9. The Breakfast Song (3:09)
10. Loco (3:12)
11. When The Night (3:31)
12. Heaven And Hell (3:22)
