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.

Shuffle Blog

Perhaps you have read blog entries where someone talks about the first five songs that come up on itunes shuffle. Sounds like fun...

Pet Shop Boys- Fugitive (Richard X Extended)
I haven't listened to this in some time and it really is fantastic. Really everything you would hope that Richard X would help bring out of the Boys as it is top form sleaze. What a lost opportunity that it didn't find a home on the proper Fundamental instead of being tossed off to bonus track land.

Scissor Sisters- Lovers In The Backseat
Since this song is in the middle of the album I never realized how long and odd the introduction is. Actually the whole song is rather odd but it does deal with voyeurism so what do you expect?

Clinton- People Power In The Disco Hour
Perhaps Cornershop had a bit of pre-millennial tension on the brain when they decided to go from an indie band to a disco outfit. Or maybe Fatboy Slim's hit remix of "Brimful of Asha" inspired the change in direction. While they were never going to be my cup of tea I did enjoy this song even if I couldn't sit through anything else from Clinton.

Cosmicity- Future Song
There are many songs on the underrated modern synthpop act Cosmicity's final album Escape Pod For Two that I like more than this closing track but it does set a mood nicely. It does remind me that I really should post something about Mark Nicholas' post Cosmicity project.

They Might Be Giants- Minimum Wage

This fourty-seven second oddball track really is random, even on TMBG's masterpiece Flood.

Lightning Round

This past week has seen more news and newly released songs than I've had time to blog about so here is what's caught my attention.

• Goldfrapp: Announced an US exclusive remix album will be out in October. Perhaps this is another limp attempt by Mute US to make up for it's utter failure to promote Goldfrapp or even digitally release any of the "Supernature" singles apart from the teaser "No 1" ep but I find it telling that if you do a google news search that you find that the vast majority of the press coverage of the "We Are Glitter" announcement is in UK publications. Only a couple of American news sources have picked up on it because no one knows why they should care. You're doing a great job Mute! While we're talking stupid promotion, do the handlers of Goldfrapp's myspace know that if you post a blog everyone can read it? Why are they sending bulletins about new singles, remix albums and tour dates but not letting the more casual fans who haven't made the band their "friend" know?
  
  
• Dangerous Muse: There's a new song "Give Me Danger" that can be streamed on their myspace that expands ever so slightly on the subdued synthpop pallet they've established with their previous three songs. They've got my attention and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the EP the song features on when it's released at the end of the month. Listen for a high-pitched synth that almost exactly echoes the main riff of Depeche Mode's "New Life" at 3:08.
  
  
• Scissor Sisters: "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" has hit the blog world like a hurricane this past week as every upbeat song about feeling down should. The chorus is great and it's hard to believe that a song more 70's anything released in 70's comes from a band that has roots in the electroclash scene. Go figure. I'd post a link to the video but if you look for it on youtube you will discover that it was "removed at the request of copyright owner RIAA". Who will the record company blame when "Ta-Dah" flops in the US? Not their legal department that is putting the kabosh on fans promoting a new single that might create some buzz for a band just outside the mainstream's radar. Perhaps listening to the 1:12 sample of the song available on the official myspace will get people interested.
  
  
• Luke Haines: I thought I was ahead of the curve when I discovered that the former Auteur and Block Box Recorder had a new track produced by Richard X only to find that XO beat me to it by several days. "Off My Rocker At The Art School" is a bit by the numbers for a Richard X production but the lyrics are a daft which is a good thing. Stream it at Luke Haines myspace and while you're there check out his work with The Auteurs and their song "Lenny Valentino" which is one of my favorites of the mid-90's.
  
  
• Client: They recently revamped their myspace with some stunning new photos that demonstrate new dimensions to their distinct looks and play up the band's newly added third members alternate career as a model. Their blog links to video of them performing live in Mexico which makes for a fascinating watch if only to see one of the show's hosts wearing a Joy Division shirt. More importantly they've added their fantastic single "Rock And Roll Machine" from their first album as a free download.

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.

Richard X Producing PSB

Richard X's site offers some encouraging news:

A brand new Pet Shop Boys track now in the bag for some future release. Speculate away. Update: No more emails please, it's a new track , not a remix, i'm sure the boys will announce all soon...Update 2: It's called Fugitive and will be released on the second disc of the new Pet Shop Boys album "Fundamental"

Looking For The Rest Of Me

R&B singer Rihanna latest single samples Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love" which is something I dismissed when I first saw it at ArjanWrites a week ago, but I'm having a change of heart. Having heard it a on the radio a couple of times since then I think Arjan might be right about the song becoming a hit, and if that happens would be the US breakthrough of the Richard X/Girls On Top style mash-up. To oversimplify, the Richard X formula is to take an early 80's backing track and throw some 90's R&B vocals over it creating an unlikely but effective combination that has led to hits for pop groups Sugababes and Liberty X in the UK. Time will tell how well the song does, but it's interesting to hear a 2000's r&b song done by a singer from Barbados that samples a 80's UK new wave hit that was a remake of a 60's northern soul song originally recorded by a native Texan.

Listen for yourself here.

Being Nobody

BBC recently interviewed Richard X as part of a series profiling major songwriters of recent years. It examines his mash-up past,

The idea, he explains, was "escaping from that world of formatting - which the DJ culture and club culture relies on so much.

"They were supposed to be the future of pop music."

and he's a bit modest about his production abilities on a #1 UK single:

"When we made the Sugababes thing there was a loop, some handclaps, the Sugababes and a semi-broken synthesiser."

"You could probably forget about the synth and as long as you had the Sugababes around at your house, you could recreate that record."

(Thanks to Si for posting this at bimfactor)