SectionsAnnuals' album 'Be He Me' sincere, memorable, a big hit with me
kevin Ehlers
Issue date: 3/16/07 Section: Features
- < prev Page 2 of 2
Baker acts as the lead singer of the group, but you'd be hard pressed to find too many moments throughout the album where he isn't joined by the rest of the band members harmonizing with him or wailing in unison in the background. Each song is so full of layered instruments like guitar, piano, keyboard, drums, xylophone, organ, banjo and melodica that you could listen to any given song multiple times and find something new each time.
The creative production value of Be He Me is just one reason this album has been so critically acclaimed among top indie critics. Baker's songs are all self-contained stories that blend in and out of one another, with remnants of one song making their way into later songs, such as it does between "Complete or Completing" and "Ida, My", where familiar lyrics appear then fade just as suddenly into an electronic landscape.
Baker tells stories of love and loss. Love usually relating to family, such as in the appropriately titled tracks "Brother", "Mama", and "Father". Loss tends to be the subject of choice for Baker on the majority of his songs, even though he surrounds these bleak tales with unusually upbeat melodies. "Bleary Eyed" is the stand out track on the album, and easily the darkest lyrically as Baker sings "Critters by the litter come gushing out my eyes/Like fears yet worth the fright/So pour me a drink/I'll spill this dark ink/I'll tell you it's all for you/But it ain't/It's just my way of coping/With this bleary-eyed baby girl...dying on my kitchen floor". It took me a solid month to realize how depressing the lyrics were because I was too busy dancing to think about what I was singing.
Be He Me is an intriguing 50 minute journey into Adam Baker's mind, but it never ceases to feel anything but sincere. It is an album that gives the listener the option of singing along and enjoying every minute of the music, or digging deeper into the lyrics and joining Annuals in the story they've weaved. It takes quite an album to accomplish this feat, and one can only wonder where Annuals will go from here having created such a memorable album at such a young age. It was my album of the year last year for a reason and it should be a unique musical experience for anyone curious enough to listen.
The creative production value of Be He Me is just one reason this album has been so critically acclaimed among top indie critics. Baker's songs are all self-contained stories that blend in and out of one another, with remnants of one song making their way into later songs, such as it does between "Complete or Completing" and "Ida, My", where familiar lyrics appear then fade just as suddenly into an electronic landscape.
Baker tells stories of love and loss. Love usually relating to family, such as in the appropriately titled tracks "Brother", "Mama", and "Father". Loss tends to be the subject of choice for Baker on the majority of his songs, even though he surrounds these bleak tales with unusually upbeat melodies. "Bleary Eyed" is the stand out track on the album, and easily the darkest lyrically as Baker sings "Critters by the litter come gushing out my eyes/Like fears yet worth the fright/So pour me a drink/I'll spill this dark ink/I'll tell you it's all for you/But it ain't/It's just my way of coping/With this bleary-eyed baby girl...dying on my kitchen floor". It took me a solid month to realize how depressing the lyrics were because I was too busy dancing to think about what I was singing.
Be He Me is an intriguing 50 minute journey into Adam Baker's mind, but it never ceases to feel anything but sincere. It is an album that gives the listener the option of singing along and enjoying every minute of the music, or digging deeper into the lyrics and joining Annuals in the story they've weaved. It takes quite an album to accomplish this feat, and one can only wonder where Annuals will go from here having created such a memorable album at such a young age. It was my album of the year last year for a reason and it should be a unique musical experience for anyone curious enough to listen.
Be the first to comment on this story