Anniemal

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.

It starts with 'Intro', which has Annie talking over a variety of bleeps and electronic anniemal noises. This is followed by the Richard X produced 'Chewing Gum' along with the quite different sounding 'Me Plus One'. As he produced Rachel Steven's 'Some Girls' the connection is certainly there.
Another outstanding track is 'Heartbeat' again co-written and produced by Annie. Many a well-established artist would kill for a track like this, while on the other hand the rather happy dance influenced 'Greatest Hit' (As someone suggested to me this is slightly reminiscent of Faithless tracks featuring Dido, but on Prozac!) samples 'Everybody' by Madonna, who is undoubtedly a big influence on Annie's music.
The title track 'Anniemal' seems to me to be a very subtle parody of Abba. The opening lines, " She's a locked up girl, in a RICH MAN'S WORLD" - 'Money, Money, Money' (!) and it goes on, but it is far too clever to ever be crass.

It is very hard to find a filler track on this album, or indeed even a predictable one. It really is that good. If you like pop with a difference then this is worth a listen. Why only 4 stars then? - Well someone this talented has potential to do even better and the scale runs out at five...