It’s strange, but even amongst the waves of haircut bands and indentikit soundalike clones there seems to be a strong undercurrent of bands that, while not particularly revolutionary, have come up with some startlingly good music. Even though Annalise have been around for ages, they’ve never broken into the national consciousness in the same way that Snuff or Leatherface have, but No Idea have “coaxed” (according to the press release) them into recording a new album, which was released at the end of last year. And the good news is that it’s a doozy.
Like the aforementioned Snuff, Annalise play anthemic punk rock that has everything in the right place. It’s not as heavy, but has all the melodic trappings of the most sublime of pop bands. And that’s where the attraction lies – Annalise have festooned their songs with hooks large enough to land the most cynical of listeners, because it’s not out-and-out pop in the sense of repetitive songs about girls, rather well-crafted songs that manage to be strongly optimistic without slipping into cliché. There’s a relentlessly positive side to ‘Here’s To Hope’ (somewhat obviously, considering the album title) that infects all the songs, from the title track to the uplifting ‘The Undisputed King of England’. It’s a great album that can reliably be given the usually hideous description of “feel-good” without ever being anything that might get airplay on Magic FM.
If there was any justice in the world, Annalise would have been contracted to write a new national anthem that would actually be worth standing up for and putting your hand on your heart. As it is, they’ll probably remain in the shadows (hell, it took me a month to review this little gem) with a hopefully fevered bunch of loyal fans behind them. After hearing this, I’ll count myself among them.
Ben
www.annalise.co.uk
www.noidearecords.com/
