Anniemal by Annie
The first time I listened to Anniemal, I was slightly bored; the album felt like a very straightforward pop album, and Annie's voice was too quiet to hold my attention. But neither of these things are necessarily bad things.
Annie began recording for Anniemal a half year after her boyfriend, Tore Kroknes, died in 2001 of a heart defect. On many of the tracks in the album, Annie's vocals can be described as melancholy, even if the lyrics themselves are not meant to be sad. Annie herself admitted that many of the tracks might feel melancholic, but making sad music was never her purpose; instead, she aimed to make bittersweet songs.
Most of the tracks on the album deal with love, whether it is falling in or out of it. The album opens with "Chewing Gum", a metaphor for being single and happy ("I'm just a girl that's only chewing for fun!/Spit it out when all the flavor has gone/Wrap it 'round your finger like you're playing with gum"). "Heartbeat" narrates the story of a party and feeling the thrill of meeting someone new ("Feel my heartbeat drumming to the beat/Like a woman in love") while "Helpless Fool For Love" describes the helplessness of falling in love with someone. On the other side of the spectrum, "Always Too Late" describes the frustration of waiting around for someone, eventually degenerating into feeling like a fool for "waiting for somebody who don't care". "Happy Without You" begins with the reasons why she chose to leave, admitting later in the song how hard it was, but coming to terms with it and eventually being happy without him.
Though Anniemal does not make an effort to push musical ground or spearhead a movement, it draws its merits from its ability to make happy songs despite its melancholy. If an album can aptly describe both the fallings in and out of love, that by itself makes it worthwhile.
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