Annie – Don’t Stop
For connoisseurs of perfect pop, Annie’s much-delayed second album was anticipated with such fevered emotion that over 200 pages had been created on the Popjustice.com forum before it finally saw the light of day. Thankfully, no-one was disappointed, with producers Xenomania, Paul Epworth and Richard X combining to create one of the best pop albums in recent years. In amongst the playground chants (‘Hey Annie’), stuttering electro (‘I Don’t Like Your Band’) and sophisticated synth ballads (‘Marie Cherie’), Annie’s glacial vocals and unique delivery helped make each song at least twenty times more memorable than most other chart music, which, given the fact this inexplicably failed to chart, is all the more amazing. In it’s original incarnation, the brilliant fuzz-pop of ‘My Love Is Better’ featured a certain Girls Aloud on the chorus, but record company wrangles meant they were removed. This is probably not that significant, but for the sake of symbolism we’ll assume it was because they couldn’t handle the fact that the quirky pop mantle had been passed on to someone else. Girls Aloud are dead, long live Annie.
Key track: ‘I Don’t Like Your Band’
Now then, we want words with ya. Yeah, that's right, all of ya. Look 'ere, right, we weren't messin' last week when we told ya what to buy with your hard-earned wonga. SIT DAHN. Who said you could get up, you sniveling excuse for a music-buying public. Not one iota of what we said last week has gone into your empty 'eads. Annie, gawd bless 'er, missed the top 75 altogether, as did that gangly bloke from Deerhunter. Those two fairies from Kings of whatstheirnames just about scraped in, and they're not 'appy, let me tell ya. IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Don't turn on the water works, it don't work with me. Just do as we say or we'll 'ave to kill ya. Thanks ever so.
BUY THIS
What Will We Be by Devendra Banhart
Beautiful, bohemian folk Overlord Devendra Banhart lost us with his last album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. All the promise of those first few albums seemed to have gone up in smoke, upon a fire of his own ego. There were the odd flashes of that latent genius of course - 'I Remember', 'Carmensita' - but in the main it was drowned in wilful experimentation (i.e. drawn out 'jams' and will-this-do time signature changes). So, it was with trepidation that we approached his seventh album, his first for a major label. But fear not dear friends for it is a triumph. Co-produced by some bloke from The Bees, What Will We Be is a more focused but no less eccentric collection of songs that take in everything from delicate acoustic lament ('Angelika'), to piano-lead ballad ('First Song For B') to, er, one that starts a bit like the Gossip ('16th & Valencia Roxy Music').
BUY THIS IF YOU LIKE THIS SORT OF THING
Butter by Hudson Mohawke
Hudson Mohawke is a terrible name. The artwork for his album Butter is pretty appalling. So far, so disappointing. But, it's not about that is it? No, it's all about the music. Luckily, the music is the sort that allows us to write these kinds of things: Imagine if Prince had grown up in Glasgow and not Minneapolis and instead of going on to be a successful pop star he'd actually made friends with a bloke called Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, and they'd hit it off so well that they shared a bed once and a small medical miracle occurred and they were able to conceive and Prince - for he would be the woman of this relationship...although, if we're able to determine that, and it's all fiction, perhaps he should have just been a woman in the first place - gave birth to a little boy called Hudson Mohawke. (Interesting fact: Rihanna's people called Hudson Mohawke's people to see if he'd like to work with her. We demand a remix of 'Russian Roulette' now. Thanks).
DOWNLOAD THIS
'Islands' by The xx
(This isn't the actual artwork. Just imagine a greenish hue behind the X)
By far the catchiest thing on their debut, 'Islands' is almost annoyingly perfect. Over a typically skeletal backing of beats and a simple guitar melody, it seems to expand and contract, adding elements and then taking them away to leave those two voices cooing at one another. "I am yours now/ So, now I don't ever have to leave", sounds a bit wet written down, but on record it's the sweetest thing. Plus, the last thirty seconds add up to one of those unique moments in music when you get a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Last week was a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole music was the real winner. The Flaming Lips seem to have scared the majority of their fanbase with the sprawling, maddening Embryonic, whilst Shakira has won some new converts with her uncanny wolf impressions (her album crashed in at no.4). The real winner of course was Alexandra Burke whose 'Bad Boys' sold nearly 200,000 copies in a week and is the fastest selling single of the year so far. Who thinks Jonathan & Edward will be doing similar business this time next year?
This week is jam-packed with amazing new albums so we've scrapped the download single bit to squeeze everything in. There's also a theme, see if you can spot it.
BUY THIS WITH YOUR BIRTHDAY VOUCHERS
Don't Stop by Annie
This album's gestation has been as protracted as a 48 hour labour only with less mess. Originally due for release in 2008 it was then put on the shelf whilst Annie looked for a new record label. She then recorded three amazing new songs to go with the other amazing ones and finally Don't Stop is available to one and all. Featuring production by Paul Epworth, Richard X, Xenomania and Timo Kaukolampi, it's a forward-thinking pop gem with at least ten singles and a personality all of its own despite the ubiquity of it's co-creators. Plus, there's a special version of it that features a five track EP, which is better than 90% of all pop albums released last year.
BUY THIS WITH YOUR BIRTHDAY VOUCHERS
Declaration of Dependence by Kings of Convenience
It's been 5 long years since their last album, but finally Norway's answer to Simon & Garfunkel are back with this lovely collection of acoustic-lead singalongs. With no drums or percussion, the focus is solely on their harmonies, the twang of the guitar and the odd flutter of a violin here and there. Luckily they've not lost their ability to craft memorable melodies, even if 'Me Inside You' is impossible to listen to without thinking of a parody from Flight of The Conchords (yeah, cheers, Maddy Costa from the Guardian!).
BUY THIS WITH YOUR BIRTHDAY VOUCHERS (plus £4.97 of you're own money)
Logos by Atlas Sound
Atlas Sound is the pseudonym used by Bradford Cox - the lead singer with Deerhunter - for all his solo work. Logos is his second album in as many years and is as intimate, experimental and downright lovely as anything Animal Collective have done in recent years. Featuring guest vocals from Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier and Animal Collective's very own Noah Lennox, as well as Cox's own hushed tones, Logos rewards repeated listens, revealing itself slowly over time...a bit like that fat kid at school that you thought was a bit boring but was just shy and actually had some amazing opinions but then died of high cholesterol.
As 2009 lurches further towards its end, we're left to reflect on what has been a pretty good year for music. There have been some pretty amazing albums released - Animal Collective, Annie, Antony & The Johnsons (and that's just the 'A's) - but there's one album we keep returning to and that's Primary Colours by The Horrors.
Everyone's already heard all about 'the year of the second album' and the fact that Primary Colours is this massive departure into krautrock with bits of shoegaze, etc, etc. The truth is much more straight forward; the album is well good. To make it even more well good they're releasing a new single in November that was previously only available on the Japanese version of the album. This is the video for 'Whole New Way':
Yes, we mentioned the song before but it's now a bit shorter and has images and things to go with it. Lazy you say? Yes. Yes we are.
Cast your minds back if you will to the summer of 2008. The sun was (probably not) shining, the bees were dancing upon a flower and the birds were flapping about as per usual. Musically, Norwegian starlet Annie was preparing to release her brand new single 'I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me', which would, in turn, herald a new album entitled Don't Stop. So excited were we that we did this.
Well, the album was hastily scrapped, Annie was dropped and it all ended rather horribly. We shed a tear or two and raised a Norwegian flag high above the office in memory of a once great pop star...but fear not, for Don't Stop has been resurrected and will now be released in October (a full year after it was pulled). To make matters that much better, Annie has decided to put new single 'Songs Remind Me Of You' on iTunes.
Here it is:
Here's a new photo of Annie:
