- There is a phenomenon—let's call it Poptical Illusion Synchronicity Syndrome (PISS) —which involves the belief that bubblegum dance music is preternaturally profound and directly addressed to one's specific life events. Usually PISS is totally erroneous and stems from the generic nature of certain feelings—the excitement of meeting someone new, the sorrow of saying goodbye. It's been the bread and butter of pop songwriters from the Platters to the Proclaimers, from Tin Pan Alley to the Neptunes.
Annie's Anniemal mastered the art of making listeners believe they have PISS. And Don't Stop is in every way the equal of Anniemal. The synths are deep and luxuriant, hearkening to Kylie's cuts, Sophie Ellis-Bextor's arrangements. This record blows newjack La Roux off the surface of the bubblegum earth.
The track that's doing it to me is "Songs Remind Me of You." ("...And does it hurt to hear your songs on the radio?") For a person like me who has an acute case of PISS, using music as a status update from my heart to my head, this cheesy ass pop song is a mainline to the confusion, joy, sadness and circularity of affairs of amore.
"Bad Times"—same deal. A lost lover, a searching U2 synth, a great fucking bassline. "You said our love can't change / When all is said and done / To have you in my arms…" Stupid pop music is precisely the best way to dodge cliché and vapidity when talking about love, because those clichés are the lingua franca of the realm and can thus be used to discuss serious shit.
Standout "I Don't Like Your Band" is the "Bubblegum" of this record. "The stuff you play / It sounds so passé / Don't get me wrong / I like you but I don't like your band." Annie is breaking up with him, not because of some innate incompatibility of natures, but because of the vagaries of pop taste, whining "Get yourself a sequencer." Sounds unlikely, yeah, but I just had a girl dump me for what seemed like irrelevancies of taste. Annie knows that in this era of Facebook autobiography, what you like and what you're into is more of who you are than who you actually are.
Disclaimer: If you are feeling upbeat and looking for some driving girlvox electropop, you should also get this album. It works on that level obviously. Annie has a feathery ESL-cool (think Robyn), and she has some of the greatest kick drums you'll hear in 2009. But I'm more of a PISS guy, so if you're among the brokenhearted masses, looking for something to spin as a private balm and a girlfriend manifesto, you should probably get this album too. Sometimes Poptical Illusion Synchronicity Syndrome is just what you need to get you through the bad times.
Tracklist 01. Hey Annie
02. My Love Is Better
03. Bad Times
04. Don't Stop
05. I Don't Like Your band
06. Songs Remind Me Of You
07. Marie Cherie
08. Take You Home
09. The Breakfast Song
10. Loco
11. When The Night
12. Heaven And Hell