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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Anniemal - a strange but beautiful beast., 23 Mar 2005
Imagine a very strange pop cocktail: start with a large shot of new millennium Kylie, add a dose of Rachel Stevens at her best and finally fill up the glass with that fizzy quirkiness that, more than often than one might expect, has made the Scandinavian countries legendary for producing more good music than their small populations might suggest reasonable. If you can you might just have some idea of what to expect from 'Anniemal'.
Annie is from Norway and this is her debut effort but you would never guess. Neither conservative nor self consciously weird in style or content - it is very listenable from the start and only gets better with repeated listening. That it is a more than competent debut is a fact; what slowly dawns is that it is a stunningly confident one. It combines a mixture of electronica with pure pop, touches of R 'n' B and rock, plus a noticeable dance sensibility in a way that is somehow quite lacking in self-consciousness, let alone any pretension. It is one of those rare albums that give the impression of being created rather than planned perhaps helped by the fact that she co-wrote and produce the majority of the tracksIt 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...
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 Anniemal B000632KWM
Annie
679
Anniemal
Welcome
Anniemal - a strange but beautiful beast.
Imagine a very strange pop cocktail: start with a large shot of new millennium Kylie, add a dose of Rachel Stevens at her best and finally fill up the glass with that fizzy quirkiness that, more than often than one might expect, has made the Scandinavian countries legendary for producing more good music than their small populations might suggest reasonable. If you can you might just have some idea of what to expect from 'Anniemal'.
Annie is from Norway and this is her debut effort but you would never guess. Neither conservative nor self consciously weird in style or content - it is very listenable from the start and only gets better with repeated listening. That it is a more than competent debut is a fact; what slowly dawns is that it is a stunningly confident one. It combines a mixture of electronica with pure pop, touches of R 'n' B and rock, plus a noticeable dance sensibility in a way that is somehow quite lacking in self-consciousness, let alone any pretension. It is one of those rare albums that give the impression of being created rather than planned perhaps helped by the fact that she co-wrote and produce the majority of the tracks
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...
R. P. Greenhalgh "Richard P. Greenhalgh"
23 Mar 2005
- Overall: 5
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Location: Frome, Somerset, England
Reviewer Rank: 4,948
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