“Chewing Gum” was nearly five years ago now, but the internet can still talk up a storm about her…
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Edward Okulicz: Annie! BACK! With Richard X! What treasures have they come to us with? Well, it’s an average song with a lush Italo backing. The key change adds a bit of interest but the tune is grounded and the much-vaunted lyrical TWIST is.. kind of nothing, really. It’s pleasant. Annie’s best songs have always seemed otherworldly and universal at the same time and there’s no magic here to be found. Also, note to record company: the YouTube “viral” thing, with the fake Anthonio posting messages to Annie and Sally Shapiro, is deeply embarrassing.
[5]
Alex Macpherson: Last year, Annie told me that for Don’t Stop, she had concentrated on the songwriting and hooks rather than spending days getting the sound of one bassline right. In a nutshell, that’s why that collection of ill-advised and mercifully unreleased Girls Aloud demos was such a disappointment. Thankfully, she seems to have realised what her forte is: the disco-in-sepia “Anthonio” is as hazily insubstantial and gorgeously immersive as the fading memories of the holiday romance it depicts. As it breezes by, you sense that something is tantalisingly out of reach, obscured by the wafting layers of gauze; and with less than a minute to go, Annie suddenly essays a spectacular chord change and a devastating twist in the plot. There’s so little fanfare that you might miss it the first time round; but then, that sort of subtlety is precisely the secret of great pop.
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David Raposa: Everything about this track is so perfectly sleek and exacting that the final twist in Annie’s immaculately composed lyric comes off as a bum note. It’s a non-shocker of a revelation in the song’s last line that’s meant to put everything that came before into a completely different context. What this line ends up doing is putting too much emphasis on the lyric at the expense of the rest of the track, and gives an explanation to something that’s probably better left unexplained. And it’s only because “Anthonio” does everything else so right — from the way Annie’s voice is mechanized to the way the synths blow cool like liquid nitrogen — that this one little lyrical indulgence is bugging the shit out of me.
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Martin Kavka: The surprise of the last line of this song is most productively read as Annie’s fuck-you to the world of mp3bloggers that have moved on to other electroid starlets. They are her children, and when we honor them, we must acknowledge that we are honoring her. Point taken. But in our defense, just because someone likes Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” does not require them to like any of the tracks on Crayons.
[5]
Keane Tzong: It’s a shame she had to go through major-label hell in order to discover that she was better off releasing songs like this, but the result is so promising I’d venture to say that the wait was worth it. “Anthonio” is just about perfect; the sleek Italo sound of the instrumental mingles perfectly with Annie’s clipped, brittle vocals. It’s as poised and effortless as Annie’s very best work, but not at all derivative of it: amazing. As an added bonus, the keychange and punchline toward the very end of the song- they come one-two, perfectly timed- are utter genius. What’s not to love?
[10]
Alex Wisgard: Annie’s patience and persistence since her second album was announced is nothing short of miraculous. This being the first single she’s released off her own back, it’s a surprisingly low-key effort, with an almost Kompakt-esque beat, topped off by layer upon layer of undulating synths and some sultry, understated cooing.
[8]
Dave Moore: Much of the still-shelved Don’t Stop saw Annie “broadening her range,” which is really a nice way of saying she was singing out of her (shallow) depth, far outreaching what her voice can actually handle. This, on the other hand, seems catered to the voice, getting maximum feeling out of a relatively small song: chintzy Italo disco throb, one-note roboverses, a breathless little hiccup of a chorus. Feels like it would crumble if you touched it, which is perfect for her.
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John M. Cunningham: Even as it paled in comparison to Anniemal, there were enough winning tunes on Annie’s scrapped album from last year to prove that she hadn’t completely slid into irrelevance. If this airily pleasant but half-hearted Italo number is the best she has to offer from the official follow-up, though, color me disappointed.
[5]
Martin Skidmore: I play the first album a fair bit, but I find much of it rather forgettable. This kind of strikes me the same way. I like the electro-pop sound (produced by Richard X) and her cute voice, but there’s not a lot of tune most of the time and nothing resembling a hook. Likeable but a little underwhelming.
[6]
Hillary Brown: Soo… I like Annie, but she can come off a little distant sometimes, and this is practically an IceBreakers ad in terms of its crystalline reserve.
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Tom Ewing: This record reminds me of 2002, and downloading any old robo-tat in a belief it might be Russian-language TaTu tracks. Which is to say I quite enjoy it. But with no hook or drive to speak of it’s running on fumes and blogosphere memories.
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Ian Mathers: I adore synths that seem to pitch in and out of focus the way these ones do, and while the overriding impression of “Anthonio” is of one of those songs that shuts your brain of in favour of more dancing (and not just dancing, but dancing on a packed, anonymous dancefloor), once I started listening the surprising bitterness and self-awareness in the narrative of “Anthonio” actually enhances the song’s off-kilter sway.
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Doug Robertson: Normally whenever Annie releases a single I’m convinced, in much the same way that I’m convinced that what I possess are not opinions but facts, that this will be the track that will shoot out of the radio like a megahit cannon and make her the glorious star that she deserves to be, but this time I’m not so sure. It’s almost like she’s become so used to not being centre stage that she’s made a conscious decision to do something a little more suited to being in the background. The more hooky nature of “Chewing Gum” and “Me Plus One” has been edged aside for something more subtle and delicate and, while it’s not going to be pushing its way to the top of the charts like a mouthy, half-naked Lady Ga Ga, its retro-futuristic clean sheen is still a remarkable and stunning piece of work. Shame no bugger’ll buy it this time either, though.
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