Annikafiore is BACK!
Today, the former Alcazar girl releases her first ever solo EP, ’Preaching To The Choir’. Written and produced by Annikafiore herself, along with Antti Vuorenniemi, and released on Annikafiore’s own label.
It’s a four track opus, including a re-mastered version of last year’s single, ‘Forbidden Love’. And Annikafiore kindly sent us a copy of the EP this morning for listen and review, and also to upload a clip of one of the songs.
The biggest and shiniest gem on here is undoubtedly the EP’s opening track, ‘Don’t Wanna C U Tonight’, and that’s the one we’re gonna be sharing with you today. It’s an epic five minutes and seven seconds of pop flavoured electro music, infused with a heartening dose of piano and strings. The electro gives a Robyn-esque bassline, and the piano provides a gorgeous atmosphere to the track, complimented by the strings. And all contribute to the song having a fast tempo, resulting in the music being painfully but brilliantly ignorant of the downbeat and heartbreaking tone of the lyrics and melody. It’s the ‘tears on the dancefloor’ style that the aforemention Robyn has perfected, but given a different, more theatrical and dramatic twist by Annikafiore.
‘Forbidden Love’, you may already be aware of, and you can hear the full original version here. ‘Shut Up & Dance’ plays out exactly how you’d expect a song with that title to be performed by that woman! The lyrics are bizarre but confident exclamations in the style of “yes Sir I can feel it’s getting very hot, stiletto burns are right here on the hard wood” and “I bet your ride is really nice but not for me, there’s no room for rumba in a sportscar”. Although our favourite line is the genius “never been a corner kind of baby”! The song has got a startling production – high energy electro in some places, and jittery and confused in others, but always fast paced. And finally, ‘Love 2 Live’ is a battle cry for “Princesses and Queens”. Some half sung and half rapped observations on life from Annikafiore, which veer into philosophical territory at times – “it’s never been a matter of size my friend. It’s not about the heels but how you walk in them”!
An accomplished debut EP, that manages to have a lot of fun with itself, but still carries itself off with the utmost of style. Perhaps taking after its maker then!
Annikafiore has kindly allowed us to upload a minute long clip of our favourite track, ‘Don’t Wanna C U Tonight’, which you can listen to below;
[audio:http://lowculture.co.uk/scandi/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/01-Dont-Wanna-C-U-2nite-Clip.mp3|titles=01 Don’t Wanna C U 2nite – Clip]And you can buy the EP, plus listen to shorter clips of all of the songs, over at CD Baby, plus iTunes of course.
