(label)
11 January 2015 (released)
30 November 2014
Frequently compared to the likes of Tegan and Sara, Little Dragon and Bjork, Seattle’s techno-centric tunesmith, Anne-Simone, releases her debut album, Bittersweet, to an audience who will now expect weird and wonderful things. Fortunately this colourful if somewhat thematically disordered six-song EP strives to please.
About as simplistic as an indie electro-pop album can be, Bittersweet never threatens to become too psychedelic, despite its reliance on atmospheric modular synthesis. It’s uplifting, compelling and dance-y throughout. Though Anne-Simone’s background lies firmly within technology, her collaboration with well-known Washington-based producer Steve Fisk has added some concordant acoustical enhancements. Let The Heart, with its gamut of structural changes, is a sterling example of this musical collusion utilising worldly instrumentation to create an international infusion that’s genre ambiguous and exotically different to Anne-Simone’s typical sound.
But for those who just want classic electro-pop, songs like Digitized and Bittersweet duly oblige. Digitized is a schmaltzy, techy love song with a chirpy, bouncy beat and resonant synthesis. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the irate barks of “get the hell off of my lawn!” from the father of Anne-Simone’s love interest as she executes this nerdish serenade on a portable Yamaha keyboard with love-struck absorption. Likewise titular song Bittersweet has the memorable yet indeterminable qualities of 80s synth-pop.
Bittersweet’s lyrical concepts revolve purely around matters of the heart, intensely exploring the trials and tribulations of romance. Let’s face it, it’s the modern-day relationship – infinitely more complex and dangerous than those of previous generations, so an empathetic connection between artist and listener is immediately established. One minute we are listening to emotional accounts of the unexpected, unbridled and often unstable physiological effects caused by love, experiencing said effects vicariously through the articulate songwriter. Then the next minute, Bittersweet questions whether it is all worth it and contemplates what could have been…Maybe if the Unsaid was said? Delivered in a dulcet tone that’s not unlike Madonna’s late 90s/early 00s change of intonation, Anne-Simone’s range limitations benefit the clarity of her phrasing greatly.
