I don't think there's much I need to say about this album, except that it's ace. I'd already heard what I now reckon to be the four best songs on it - "My Heartbeat" (which I knew, and will continue to think of, simply as "Heartbeat"), "Chewing Gum", "Anniemal" and "Come Together" - but had only previously been able to really listen to the first of those over and over (ie, because I had it on mp3, whereas the others were just repeated appearers on last.fm), but it's all really rather good, Annie's thin voice and simple beats transformed (well, absorbed into and by) her - or (I'm not sure) her songwriters' - knack for the unobtrusively vivid hook and a crisp, lean pop sound making for a delicious whole.[*]
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[*] I was actually wondering about the constituents of her fanbase a while back. Kelly mentioned that the audience at the show Annie played in Melbourne was disproportionately 'macho' (w/ something of a goth turnout, too!), which is rather troubling (although, somehow, I wasn't wholly surprised upon hearing that review) - although very possibly Annie's one of those artists whose live show attendees aren't necessarily representative of her fanbase as a whole...related question: just how large (and wide) is that 'fanbase', anyway?
