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Annabel

Here We Are Tomorrow EP

Written by: DR on 15/02/2011 20:57:19

The Bear Trap name is almost always an instant seal of approval for me, so when Annabel's latest EP "Here We Are Tomorrow" was in our mailbox I was content to have it pushed towards me by PP, without even remembering that I had expressed affection for them in a previous review of TL's.

What m'colleague reviewed was Annabel's debut full-length, Each And Everyone; their Arcade Fire-influenced take on indie sufficiently impressed him, and to a lesser extent me, but rather than try to refine that sound, they have, at some point during the year and a half between this release and the last, pushed it into new territory.

The bands of reference for that album are still relevant for this EP - the tribal-esque drumming, the group-chanting of "oh" and the overall measured build-up of "Repetition, Etc." smacks of Arcade Fire - but I can't help notice tendancies in the musicianship that touch on both math-rock and 90s indie, akin to the likes of Castevet, Everyone Everywhere and Look Mexico, except Annabel's greatest strength is something other bands in a similar genre lack: immediacy.

Annabel do like to construct soundscapes, and like many bands in their field are skilled at doing so, but they balance these with utterly infectious vocals, which means from your first listen of "The Forgetting of Names And Faces" you'll be hooked and trying your best to sing along. It is the sincerity of Andy and Ben Hendricks that result in those songs being so instantly attractive, and the occasional group-vocals lift everything even higher. The collective voices singing "I'm coming out tonight for the first time in a long while" starts off by giving "We Came As Today" the feel of British indie at its most infectious, but Annabel lead the song into solid periods of instrumentation that become more rewarding after each listen - much like the whole EP.

It's not all good, though. The one nit I have to pick at is the vocals of "Summer Heath"; despite how adeptly they use the layered vocals in the rest of the EP, here they just get in the way of each other, ultimately hindering the start of the song. Although, that is then saved by the loud instrumental closing. This remains a very promising, and at the same time assured, EP. Not only have they announced themselves among their peers with this, but they've found something that will set them apart, and they will put such a smile on your face in the process.

Download: The Forgetting of Names And Faces, We Came As Today
For The Fans of: Everyone Everywhere, Joie De Vivre, Castevet, Look Mexico, Arcade Fire
Listen: Myspace

Release Date 14.12.2010
Tiny Engines