Annie Eve’s debut album has all the beautiful trademarks of a first EP. This is a collection of songs Annie’s been playing with and writing for a long time. Listening to Sunday ‘91, you can feel Annie’s music changing and developing – like a slow growth into the artist she’s forming into. For any fans of Annie’s who are used to listening to her Burberry Acoustic session or her YouTube channel, this album will add illuminating new layers to Annie’s piercingly delicate melodies.
The album starts with ‘Animal’. Tender drums, piercing lead and soft rhythm wrap around Annie’s haunting vocals, letting us gently in to an album that’s been promising since Annie recorded ‘Elvis’. A song on the lighter side of the album, dark in undertone, but melodic, uplifting and incredibly catchy, with memorable lyrics: “Don’t care/Really don’t mind, who you are/As long as you cry.”
‘Bodyweight’ – easily my favourite song on the album and my favourite from her repertoire on the New Faces tour plays second. The harmonies between Annie and Jess Sawers-Warren on Sunday ’91 are truly hypnotic. ‘Bedtime’ and ‘Basement’ follow suit, with seamless, beautifully layered, atmospheric vocal cohesion.
‘Crisis’ comes in with a thick distorted, grungy guitar loop and lingering vocals and shows a musically darker side to Annie’s music, that takes me right back to my youth. This nostalgic sound bleeds into ‘Kid Meets World’, a song that feels fuelled by young love: “You could come around/take off all my clothes/do the things you said you’d do/I could make it better/cos I would make it true.”
There’s almost a beautiful introversion with Annie’s music. Like she’s singing a melancholic stream of consciousness. I’d like to say this album is about the follies of youth; heartbreak, young love, angst – but it’s not. To say Sunday ’91 is an exploration of solely teenage issues would take away from the universal undertones at play in this album. This album covers all of the aforementioned subjects, none of which exclusively attributed to youth. It’s a beautiful, heart-breaking album.
Words: Joseph Merriman