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If you’re up to date on your hip indie music blogs, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about Annuals in the past few months. “Brother,” the first track on this Raleigh, NC band’s upcoming album Be He Me (Ace Fu), was featured on Pitchfork’s Infinite Mixtape series in late July and they’ve gotten mentions on Spin.com and a few other relatively prominent music sites and popular blogs.
Although I most certainly don’t recommend believing everything you read on PFork, trust them on this one – you must hear this album. If you hear/read anything about them being a fantasy hybrid of all of your favorite bands, it’s probably not too far off the mark. Some of the pictures painted by this album: happy, sad, angry, insane, claustrophobic, jubilant, regretful, mournful, primal. Ok, adjective lists are lame. But seriously, trust me on this one. The twelve tracks on Be He Me are all bursting at the seams with sonic complexity, but they all remain inherently organic.
Apparently 20 year-old Adam Baker (referred to as “the architect” of Annuals on the Ace Fu website because he writes and records almost everything on the album) doesn’t want you to know that he can write perfect pop songs. He stacks explosions, tape machine noises, countless percussion tracks, yelps and primal screams on top of virtually every track, but somehow it never seems to get in the way of the songs themselves. If you get a chance to see these guys live, you’ll know that Adam doesn’t just scream or smash a set of toms on the ground to be “edgy.” He felt whatever it is when he wrote it and he’s feeling it again right in front of your eyes. Every sound on Be He Me is there for a reason.
This album fares well with headphones and repeat listens, but there are so many instantly catchy melodies and intensely emotional moments that it’s also a great “car album.” Some of my favorite tracks are “Brother,” “Carry Around,” “Bleary-Eyed” and “Mama.” The most relevant comparison I can think of to Annuals’ winning combo of devotion to sonic exploration and an unwavering pop foundation is The Beach Boys.
Annuals have been favorites among hip high schoolers in the Raleigh area for a couple of years now, and they’re just starting to get their live show up to par with the beautifully jumbled mess of sonic layers and textures found in their recorded material. They’re about to head out on a semi-national tour, doing a couple shows with Art Brut and spending a good deal of time with Tapes n’ Tapes.
