Unofficial Video: Annie "Songs Remind Me Of You"

Perhaps you have missed the much written about fuss over Annie's sophomore album Don't Stop as it has been delayed for over a year since it leaked presumably because of politics that none of us can ever expect to understand which led to her moving to a new label and altering the track listing. It is something I have been aware of but Annie's puzzling popularity with the US indie crowd that so often rallies around the cry of anything anti-synth and anti-pop has created a distrust of her in me even if there is nothing to dislike in her music. So it was with some trepidation that I clicked through one of several links in my twitter stream to see the "unofficial" video for her latest single but the first listen demanded a second and soon I was hooked. After laying low over the past couple of years it is clear that Richard X has returned in a big way because his distinctive fingerprints are all over this italo flavored track that, if I may steal from wikipedia (or their source MuuMuse), "Songs Remind Me Of You" is a perfect blend of "lush disco, breathy vocals, and intergalactic swarms of electronica". Filmed at the album's new photo shoot this unofficial video released by her management is a rather fantastic example of stellar execution of a simple concept:



: Among Richard X's recent projects he has remixed Pet Shop Boys & Dragonette but very excitingly Chart Rigger pointed out that it has just been announced that he is remixing the entirety of Saint Etienne's 1991 debut Foxbase Alpha which will be released as Foxbase Beta. Thinking back I remember when Annie's second album was going to come out in 2006, the latest reports say Don't Stop is due in the US this November.

You've Got It All Wrong

MTV News has the scoop on the new album Annie plans to have out by the end of the year:

...throwing herself into madcap sessions with a slew of different producers, including ex-Smashing Pumpkins/ A Perfect Circle guitarist James Iha... She reteamed with British mash-up master Richard X on two songs for the as-yet-untitled new LP, including a cover of Stacy Q's '80s hit "Two of Hearts" and an original called "Remind Me of You."

"The new songs are more club-oriented — still '80s-sounding, but different," Annie said at the recent South by Southwest music conference. "But to be honest, I never really know what things will sound like until I finish the album. I'm sort of in the middle of the album. There's going to be a lot of different people, it's going to be more diverse, but I'm not quite sure which direction the production will go."

After she finishes recording with Iha in New York, she'll team up with French techno producer Alan Braxe (who worked on Stardust's 1998 hit "Music Sounds Better With You") and then some yet-to-be-named collaborators.

: The MTV article also refers to the curious phenomenon of her there's-no-shame-in-bubble-gum style of pop having such appeal to indie rockers. While I think Annie is fantastic, I simply don't understand the appeal to the indie crowd and I am puzzled that her album is still charting at the indie rock dominated college station I used to dj at months and months after it's release. Is it an ironic embrace of all the aesthetic values they once stood for? I'm sincerely confused, but at least it guarantees that Annie's music is distributed in the US.