Annie
After falling off the radar following the release of underground club smash "The Greatest Hit" (which sampled Madonna's "Everybody") in 1999 and the premature death of her boyfriend and producing partner Tore Andreas Kroknes in 2001, sassy Norwegian Annie returned with a vengance and put out one of the best best pop records of 2004, Anniemal. And for a while there it seemed that the only people who'd heard it were a slew of Scandinavians, a couple of people in the UK, a whole bunch of music bloggers.
Annie was one of the very first international acts on my radar who became bona fide Internet music ultra-meme, garnering glowing recommendations from the pop-loving Stereogum to crumudegons at Pitchfork. The discovery and dissemination of Annie's music in this way is one of those things that makes me believe in the inherent goodness of man -- and incredible power of word-of-mouth and file sharing. (Anniemal was released in the US in mid-2005.)
[Sorry, I, uh, just had to get up and have a dance break there for a few minutes!]
Aggressively yet sweetly metallic and busy with jingles and clanks -- especially her best-known track, the Richard X-produced "Chewing Gum" (the remainder of the album was produced by Royksopp and Finnish electrohead Timo Kaokolampi) -- Annie's songs are full to the brim with electropop flourishes and ABBA shoutouts and throbby RnB beats. Her delightfully accented, breathy, and slightly detached (yet wonderfully expressive) voice puts the Ashlee Simpsons and even the Gwen Stefanis of the world to shame. (Namechecking one's self in a song is always infinitely better than a call-and-response cheerleader chant, in my book!)
In fact, Annie is a great rarity when it comes to pop divas -- she's definitely not just a mindless chirping (or lip-synching) Barbie doll. She wrote (or co-wrote) an overwhelming majority of the songs on Anniemal (which run the gamut from crystalline dancefloor stompers to thumpy slow jams) and she's producing tracks on her next album. On related career path, she's a hot property on the celebrity DJ circuit and contributed a set to K7's DJ Kicks series in 2005.
Annie - My Greatest Hit
Annie - Chewing Gum
Annie - Heartbeat (Phones Maximo Remix)
Annie - The Wedding
Annie's official site. Buy Anniemal at Amazon or from the iTunes Music Store.
Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 01.24.06 at 1:21 AM
Comments
Comments are now closed for this entry.
