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Annie- Don't Stop 
Sorry, Bat for Lashes, but Annie has usurped your crown for "Album of the Year" honors! I've finally gotten my thoughts out in the form of a proper review! One for the All Night EP will surely follow.
Annie- Don't Stop
2009
"Let's go, you have no control (you have no control over me)" calls Annie during "Don't Stop" in a voice much more strident and direct than her typically airy delivery. Given the nearly 2-year battle Annie waged in releasing this album, this line stands as quite a powerful and inspiring message. The world of pop music is a tricky one, as a singer merely having some sort of input into the production and sound of an album is not so commonplace, let alone a genuine battle over artistic integrity. Indeed, it's rare and quite refreshing to find such a blue-collar work ethic applied within the genre as Annie presents on Don't Stop. And while it is evident that Annie has poured over a massive array of musical output in amalgamating her assortment of influences, the end result amazingly does not sound forced or contrived, but rather a natural release of bottled creativity. Consequently, Don't Stop plays like the classic pop record it is.
One thing that distinguishes Annie from her more successful pop contemporaries is that her devotion to music is so palpable. This obsession is demonstrated several times throughout the album, as many of the songs seem to be about music itself. The opener "Hey Annie" acts as a call to arms of sorts, with Annie urging her listeners to discover a new sound and a new voice while assuaging them "we're all here for the better, in the music you might discover a new pulse, a new beat, a new love" with a sort of reassurance that resonates from somebody who has been through the battlefield. Like "Don't Stop", "Hey Annie" is another new addition to the album since she and Island parted ways. The third new track also references music, but in a much more playful, cutting way. The electro-pop of "I Don't Like Your Band" recalls the sweet sass that made "Chewing Gum" and "Me Plus One" so tantalizing, but with an added bite. Throughout the song, Annie disparages her guy's musical output as passé, complete with cutting lines such as "your latest 7-inch sounds obscene unless you spin it at 45". The solution to this musical impasse? A quick refresher course on Kraftwerk, Bobby O and Moroder for starters! Then she implores "1. Gotta ditch your influences then, 2. Start it all again, 3. Buy yourself a sequencer and then 4. Let the games begin". The acerbic lyrics are matched with an appropriately percolating chug, making it a great candidate for a single, and with Annie subverting the typical gender associations of musical snobbery, it is quite memorable.
As great as these two songs are, they are still overshadowed by the song that closes the first half of the album, "Songs Remind Me of You". Having just referenced Giorgio Moroder on the previous song, Annie and co-captain Richard X successfully emulate the vitalic pulse of his music with a paean to a producer-singer relationship gone sour. It roars out of the gate on all cylinders before launching into one of the best bridges I've heard in a song in many years- the kind of bridge that promises a truly cataclysmic chorus, and one that Annie promptly delivers with a heavenly "How does it feel to hear your songs on the radio? And does it hurt to hear your songs on the radio?" Truly epic stuff.
Also peppered throughout the album are remnants of the grand commercial plan set forth when the album was meant to break Annie to the mainstream with Island Records. Hit producers Xenomania are at the helm on five of the tracks on the album. First and foremost is the scorching "My Love Is Better", which features Alex Kapranos on guitar and formerly featured Xenomania darlings Girls Aloud as backing vocalists before a separate record company dispute ensued in the removal of their input. It sounds every bit like the snappy, whizzing quirk-pop that garnered Girls Aloud and their producers critical and commercial adulation, but Annie manages to make the song her own. "Loco" likewise bites from the Girls Aloud tree, but Annie injects her trademark weirdness during a second verse gloriously adorned with some rousing synth octave sequences. The album closer "Heaven and Hell" sounds like a lost soundtrack song for a hit British romantic comedy, while its predecessor "When the Night" is nothing short of a soaring pop ballad that absolutely drips of wistful childhood nostalgia as Annie's sweetness is on full display. The best of these songs, however, is the urgent pop/rock of "Bad Times", which is the album's closest cousin to hyper-ballad "Heartbeat". Perfectly showcasing Annie's beautiful balance of happiness laced with a streak of melancholy, the song sees Annie pining over a doomed relationship, revealing that bad times "never sounded so good". Thankfully, the producers allow Annie to breathe her magic throughout the song, making it quite the emotional heavyweight.
Nevertheless, no Annie album is complete without some unabated weirdness. Nobody better understands this side to Annie than Timo Kaukolampi, and the results are even more vibrant and striking than his contributions on Anniemal. First is the harrowing beauty of "Marie Cherie", an ode to a girl Annie once knew in her school years. Adorned in lush orchestration, frenzied beats and grandiose percussion, it wouldn't sound out of place on a Björk album. Annie implies that she didn't know the titular character all that well, but that she used to stop by to see if she was ok. Marie's ill fate leads to her death, and it appears that she was a victim of sexual abuse: "A lone butterfly that's caught in amber, always your daddy's little girl". However, the direct cause of her demise, like the song itself, is shrouded in mystery. Particularly affecting is the beginning of the second verse, as the combination of Annie's perfectly coldly breathed lyrics "Oh no he did not treat you right, your innocence is lost, you never had the chance to fly" with the stabbing string squeals is truly chill-inducing. Thankfully, the song is followed by the alluring seduction of "Take You Home". Not the kind of pop star to exploit the sexual angle for success, the fact that Annie lets down her guard here is all the more potent. A dark current of tension rumbles underneath the surface, and Annie seems powerless to resist the appeal of a one-night stand, shedding her paranoia and fear: "looking for trouble, that's what I am, playing a game we both understand". The next song seems to follow on from those events, and she really flies off the rails with an unbridled zaniness that is nothing less than irresistible. "The Breakfast Song" features a manic synth line undercut by some tempestuous percussion as Annie repeatedly demands "What do you want? What do you want for BREAKFAST", literally shouting the last word. She can barely keep up with herself, her restless energy forcing her to gush about having a swim or a holiday. While it sounds like a relentless rush of excitement, like all great Annie songs, there is a duality in the emotion. An undercurrent of insecurity means she basically would prefer anything to the quiet reflection of their relationship status, but she relents in the end, simply confessing, "I know you. Know me! I love you. Love me!" These adventurous excursions are all lumped together, and they lend the album a crucial smattering of texture and depth.
Above all else, Don't Stop is what a pop album should sound like in 2009- studious but not overly studied, varied but not disconnected, and both ephemeral and timeless. Each of the twelve songs are competing to stay in my head, and above all else, the album is so injected with Annie's joyful personality that it really feels like she earned it rather than inheriting some catchy tracks through good fortune or industry position. It is unlikely that the album will achieve the commercial scope it deserves, but this is yet again another truly valiant effort. On a personal note, I can attest that I have loved a lot of music from this decade, but only ten or so albums have truly felt like "events". Anniemal was certainly one of them, but Don't Stop is right there with it. While listening to the album, I've caught myself smiling and even laughing our of sheer joy, and I just don't do that! Somehow, some way, Annie has crafted a truly perfect concoction of music that elicits an unending well of joy in my spirit, and that is no small feat. While I'm sure that this is in large part due to the anticipation of the much-delayed release of this album, I truly feel that Don't Stop is a seminal pop release. "Don't underestimate me", she decrees during the title track. With an album this great, I don't think you have to worry about that much longer, Miss Strand.
"I'm a lover, not a haitcher"- Pandurito
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And she dethroned Bat For Lashes!?! 
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