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Review
This CD has been a long-time coming since she released her first single, the Madonna-sampling underground success "Greatest Hit", in 1999. The track was made with Annie's producer boyfriend Tore Andreas Kroknes, who sadly died from a heart defect in 2001, aged just 23. Annie needed time to recover from the loss before going on to complete the album, which she had always intended to make with him.
Featuring his trademark bleeps and beats, the Richard X produced opener "Chewing Gum" is one of the album's stand-out tunes; surely the most infectious pop single to be released in 2004! Listen to it and then shrug your shoulders in disbelief that it only reached No.25 in the charts. The upbeat "Me Plus One", meanwhile, bounds along with confidence and style as Annie sings and raps over lush, breathy backing vocals.
As if we aren't being spoilt enough, fellow Norwegian's Royksopp (from Annie's home town of Bergen) contribute to three tracks, including the soulful synth-pop "No Easy Love", which wouldn't sound at all out of place on the 'sopp's debut LP, Melody AM.
"Heartbeat" ,her first single of 2005, lives up to Annie's description as being a 'party song about enjoying the moment', while "Come Together" starts off slow before turning into a hypnotic eight minute disco anthem with synth strings and handclaps. The album closes with the melancholy "My Best Friend", all about the worries of having a mate in distress.
The production throughout the album really shines, and Annie herself competes effortlessly with the best that the Kylies and Britneys of this world have to offer. Sheer Anniemal magnetism - this is what pop music should sound like in 2005. --David Hooper
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Customer Reviews
This album is stupendous stuff. From the very infectious, floorfilling, poptastic Chewing Gum(with a top video to boot if you have seen it) to the more leftfield Heartbeat, it is extremely listenable from start to finish and back again. There seems to be a hotbed of talent coming out of Scandanavia at the moment, with The Concretes and Royksopp amongst my favourite records of recent times and this is up there amongst them. Buy this album now as I would expect it to be one of the successes of 2005 when it gets its official launch in a few months time.
I came across annie by accident: around midnight one night in barcelona, I stumbled across some friends who were going to a club called razzmatazz, and they asked if I wanted to tag along. I went, got tired of the giant main dance floor, and started wandering around. I found a room called the 'pop bar' or something, and on the small stage, with not much attention being paid to her by the jaded barcelona hipster kids, was a demurely-clad norwegian blonde singing understated pop songs without any flashy lights, choreography, costume changes, or anything else you might associate with a pop princess. she said her name was annie, and when a few weeks later I saw anniemal on a record store shelf, I didn't think twice about buying it.
you shouldn't either. all the songs not only hold up to scrutiny and can hold their own as legitimate pop, they're also actually really good. 'always too late' does destiny's child better than destiny's child, and also improves on their lyricism quite a bit. the backing beat isn't cookie-cutter r&b either: it has the quality of being both sparse and lush at the same time, much like annie's voice. she leaves out all that vocal melisma that plagues most pop (see 'pop idol') and just sticks to the melody, making sure to drip loads of dreamy sensuality over every line.
'me plus one' is perhaps the best pop track on the album, narrowly beating 'chewing gum'. both are pure roller-disco-and-bubblegum pop pleasure without feeling eager or dated. 'greatest hit' is so understated and cool, it should win some sort of trophy that has a disco ball on the top. and of course there's 'come together', the nearly-8-minute disco-dance extravaganza, which could bring a dancefloor with the population of south america to its knees. and the best track is 'my heartbeat', which is the most emotional, lush, and musically interesting track on the album.
so if you doubt the power of pop music, it's probably because of what gets passed off as pop music these days. listen to annie and you'll realise that pop isn't some genre made specifically to piss off stuffy 16 year-old guitar players. there's power in the ability to get people to dance, and annie uses this power with great responsibility. she's like the spiderman of pop.
also, if you like annie, check out a band called out hud.
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