ANNA WANG
Written, Recorded, Performed and Produced by Anna Wang
Released November 3, 2017
I do not believe that I could have asked for a more sparkling Christmas gift.
I have said it many times before and I am so, so compelled to say it once again: Music chooses YOU! The inexplicable beauty that occurs when unfamiliar music enters your life is nothing short of magical, especially when it arrives as a complete surprise. And at this time, I am excited to share with you an album that entered into my life a mere few days ago and already has become one that is a fixture within my CD player as I drive around my fair city. Furthermore, this album is from an artist who has only continued to broaden my knowledge of the happenings within the music community of Madison, WI, which I contend remains a well kept secret but truly should not be due to the fruitfulness of the artistry at work and at play.
Please allow me to introduce you to Anna Wang, a local artist I had not heard of until perhaps a week or so before this posting. I was simply thumbing through the latest issue of the local free newspaper The Isthmus, hopefully attempting to locate some movie listings, when I happened upon a small photo and advertisement of a show occurring at the tiny bar/club establishment The Frequency, a show in which Ms. Wang was listed as the headliner and performing in promotion of her recently release debut solo album. The notice's descriptions of her "fully realized electropop solo album" piqued my curiosity, so much so, that once I had returned home for the evening, I visited her Bandcamp page to give her music a quick listen. After hearing three songs, I was not quite yet hooked but definitely more than intrigued with Wang's voice and overall bubblegum quality of her sound that I was inspired to try and reach out to her via social media.
Looking her up upon Facebook and seeing that she was friends with Alivia Kleinfeldt, former Modern Mod bassist, current Dash Hounds songwriter/singer/guitarist as well as bassist for Squarewave, I felt confident enough to send a friend request, a request which she quickly granted and just as quickly after that, a conversation began as did my purchase of her complete album. Our first official meeting in person arrived a few days later at the WVMO studios, where I was about to host my next Savage Radio show. Also, and as requested, Anna Wang arrived with a physical copy of her album in hand and ready for me and I can only say that in person, she is beguiling! All smiles, infectious energy and a bubbly conversationalist, we seemed to strike an instant rapport which made me even more anxious to hear her albumin full (and truth be told, I was already thinking of inviting her to be an on-air interview guest for a future show in those moments).
But enough preamble as I really just need to get us to the main event, which is as follows:
"In Your Head" is an absolutely perfect title for Anna Wang's collection of 10 tracks as they are completely irresistible and insistently memorable pop song confections that completely demonstrate the glory of pop music as a genre when it is handled with as much care and skill as Wang achieves with her album. The synthetic sheen and glossy nightclub rhythms provides the album with more than enough ear candyfloss to glue itself to your brains as your bodies compulsively move to her subtle yet enveloping beats. Yet, what makes the album resonate to its fullest is the clarity in Wang's vocals combined with the dark intimacy of her lyrics and interior storytelling.
"In Your Head" opens with the sonic sun rays of "Ashes" which juxtaposes its glistening musicality with strikingly direct lyrics depicting a relationship run off the rails.
"Another fight
Another night we've hurt each other
You're emptying our your drawer and
You're heading for the door and
You're giving me your key, yeah
Saying you're through with me, yeah
But I just can't believe it
I know that you don't mean it
Oh, we light up our matches
Oh, the fire comes in flashes
Oh no, the damage is tragic
But every kiss is magic
Let it burn to ashes"
While the music maintains its steady melody and beat, Wang's lyrics grow more intense, illustrating moments that just may cut close to the bone of many listeners due to the romantic familiarity. Yet, and in addition to the aforementioned musical juxtapositions, Wang's delivery of how the kisses retain a certain magic gives the song a storytelling unpredictability, for is the relationship over and done or are we witness to a precarious cycle engaged in yet another revolution? This mystery not only makes for a provocative opening statement, but one that indeed sets the stage for the album as a whole.
With its sinister hopscotch groove soundscapes, the album's standout second track "When The Fever Breaks" brings a carnality to the proceedings which deepens the emotional narrative while containing an unapologetic eroticism. "You don't know much about me, you don't gotta," Wang sings. "I don't know much about you, I don't have to/You won't be in my orbit long enough to matter." Wang effortlessly pulls you in closer with the warmth of her voice only to slice you apart with the dismissiveness of her cavalier kiss off before the relationship has really begun. For in this selection, recklessness is the aphrodisiac, the brutal come down is an inevitability and apparently, that is just the way she wants it.
After probing questions of the heart in the aptly titled and appropriately rhythmic "Heartbeat" and the sultry, lusty waltz of "Rain Down" (which itself contains some especially inventive drum programming), we reach the album's terrific title track, which more than lives up to the promises of its title through its increasingly energetic nightclub mirrorball aesthetics. And trust me, when Wang's alluring vocals express to her latest conquest, "You don't gotta call, but I bet you'll remember me," you will believe every word and if your temperature begins to rise as well, then so be it.
The heated eroticism that emerges with a growing restlessness, whether emotional, sexual or both, returns with "Unless We're Going Home Together," a grand, almost 1980's styled ballad yet one that is propelled with skittering electronic percussion and those lyrical juxtapositions that paint a most evocative picture of our narrator's nervous, lustful, electric energy. At one point, she claims to not "need drugs to have a good time" but also certainly would not mind getting herself "fucked up." She wishes to have "a night we can remember" but she also plainly states to the object of her affection that "I don't want a true love."
Yet, what was most telling within this song for me was how Wang deftly circles back to the combined sexual intensity and emotional red lights of "When The Fever Breaks" when she sings the following, "Make the most of all the time we've borrowed/And tonight, we'll forget about tomorrow." Again, Wang displays that unapologetic recklessness that intentionally eclipses the inevitable regret of the morning after and when merged with the swoon of the music, the effect is refreshingly murky and even a tad dangerous.
The grim "Break You" finds Wang caught in an interior rage against a former lover as she is aided by dirge-like synths and those percolating drum programs that feel like the rapid succession of ferocious thoughts and an accelerated heartbeat made irregular courtesy of post-romantic ache, possibly signifying a return to the album's opening aftermath of "Ashes," a smoldering element that continues to fall downwards over the course of the album's final three songs.
The remarkable "Do It Again," featuring a jazzy, sassy neck-snap in her vocals, we find Anna Wang lost in blissful memory, present pain and what feels to be a determined sense of resignation to her insatiable desires.
"Remember when it all began
It felt so easy
Now you hurt me 'cause you can
Toss me around and
Play me like a toy you've got
In the palm of your hand
But if I had the choice, I'd do it all again..."
"if I had the choice..." hmmm...
What just gets to me within this song is perhaps that one brief admission because in all actuality, she does have the choice to be involved or not with her now former lover. But, what if she exists within a psychological state where she feels unable, unwilling or maybe even unwanting to exert some sense of control over her own desires? What Wang achieves so brilliantly is to capture that emotional state when relationships do become devastatingly messy, when whatever rational sides we possess completely fall apart leaving us slaves to our own feelings regardless of any potential outcomes. Who wishes to bid farewell to once was, especially when it satisfied emotionally and sexually? Could one blame Wang for wishing fr a rewind even if the result is the same? I doubt you could once you hear her sing her song.
The startling "Break Your Heart" arrives next and features a synthetic and emotional palate that for me suggested a song like Prince's erotic, moody and even disturbing "Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)" tinged with the mournful resolve of Pete Townshend's "I Like It The Way It Is." Wang's song is a deeply felt bout of dark self-reflection in which she asks of herself a probing question that we just may have also been asking of her throughout the album: "Maybe I'm a masochist."
The album closes with a track of open hearted fragility, the baroque acoustic guitar driven "Circles." As rendered by the song's title, Wang brings all of the album's themes and narrative, not to a close or resolution, but to a point of saddening revelation.
"My body is on fire but your touch feels so cold
Love is a battle and it's taking its toll
I try to cut the cord you tie up in bows
And we spin round and round in circles...
...you pull me back every time..."
Anna Wang's "In Your Head" on the surface may feel to be a slick, slice of richly rendered candyfloss and in many ways it is as Wang's pop sensibilities are firmly in the front seat, so to speak, providing her music with its ear candy energy and engine. After only a couple of listens (and possibly not even that many), Wang's songs are firmly locked into your mental jukeboxes, inviting you to sing along almost instantaneously. Her musical bedrock is also deceptively simple as the songs are driven by an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines yet not presented within any bombastic fashion. As this album was recorded entirely within her home studio, we are given a stripped down quality that allows the songs themselves to be showcased freely and without being interrupted by any production overkill. In fact, the sparseness increases the album's sense of intimacy. In fact, it almost feels as if Wang is in the room with you sharing her thought, fears, desires and confessions, which would maybe make some listeners feel uncomfortable if not for the warmth of her voice.
In this age of "The Voice," where so-called singers practically invent syllables to go with their multi-octave ranges and yet convey not one shred of honest emotion, Anna Wang's singing is truly refreshing. She certainly has the chops, that is more than evident throughout. But again, she allows the songs and lyrics to do the work as she never allows herself to oversell a word, a moment, an emotion or the overall impact. She is wise enough to know that any showboating for these songs is wholly unnecessary and I deeply appreciated the restraint as the songs are powerful (and even malleable) enough on their own.
It may sound strange but I could easily picture this entire album being re-worked as a series of club jam anthems, or campfire/coffeehouse folk songs or mournful R&B slow jams or even prickly indie rock songs. This is not to suggest that Wang actually alter her work. This is just to illustrate just how strong of a songwriter Anna Wang actually is as the music feels adaptable enough to bridge genres effortlessly. Even so, "In Your Head," just as it is, achieves a rich status as her fully idiosyncratic gatherings of bedroom pop that are truly fearless in their display while also enveloping her music with a alluring sense of mystery.
Furthermore, I deeply appreciated Anna Wang's nimble balance when creating songs that are overtly sexual while not ever being salacious, vulgar or possessing moments that arrive out of mere shock value. The album feels as if Wang is using the arena of sex as a catalyst to explore the nature of relationships, how they work and fail, and what those relationship actually do to our own sense of self-perception, therefore making her album deeply existential. Am I doomed to certain behaviors, certain people, certain desires? Should I try to make a change or it is even possible because is this just who I am? That is the mark of one hell of a songwriter and to do so with a clear, direct economy of words, cleanly expressed without anything superfluous, makes Wang a force to not only watch but one to be reckoned with.
And of course, there is that aforementioned sense of mystery I expressed earlier. I find it very interesting that Anna Wang has chosen to release this music under her own name rather than through the mask of a band or a pseudonym. In doing so, we are indeed invited to ponder if she is indeed singing about herself and her own exploits and demons. Frankly, is this who Anna Wang really is? Or is what we're hearing is a persona projected into reality through daydreams and diary entries or via friends and acquaintances in her real life when she is not writing, recording or performing. I can say that I was intrigued and in a later correspondence, I even asked her, to which she coyly replied, "Hmmm...what do you think?"
While I will tell you that our discussion continued and she did indeed give me a definitive answer, I will not share that answer with you as I wish for you to seek and receive her album just as she may be intending, for I strongly feel that Anna Wang is more than worth any effort that you are willing to exert in order to hear new music that is fresh, vital, original, un-jaded and despite the painfulness of the material itself, "In Your Head" is fueled from the joy of creation.
Anna Wang's "In Your Head" contains an intimacy so frank and passionate, it feels as if her nerve endings are exposed. And you know, as I write, I am truly amazed with how perfect an album title this actually is. For as we get into her head, Anna Wang's music will tenaciously burrow its way into ours.
ANNA WANG'S MUSIC:
via SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/annawang1
via BANDCAMP: https://annawang.bandcamp.com/releases
