Annie Hamilton - the future is here but it feels kinda like the past

 

New album by Australian Annie Hamilton out today (May 20th) via PIAS

Annie Hamilton debut studio album is a reach for the mainstream, it feels like the title of the album suggests, a work that is something you may have heard before but is fresh and new.

A dreamy journey that is full of juxtapostions, raw but soft in her vocal delivery, electronic but stripped back, real but fantastical. Hamilton has taken the chance that the pandemic gave to look inwards and has created a work that is universal, escapist and nostalgic.

Opening single 'Providence Portal' is a harbinger for the album, soft melancholic keyboards with her wonderful vocals soon married by a slowly thudding drumbeat underneath. This promises to be an album you want to go back to and listen to again immediately.

Hamilton states, 'It's about the passing of time, how sometimes it flies by and sometimes it drags on forever and we're always looking ahead wanting something more or wallowing in nostalgia', this writer has heard similar platitudes from the artist SOAK, about the impact the pandemic has had on her personally.

'Exist' is the lead single, anthemic but has an internal monologue by the character Hamilton is portraying running through it, as if she is having a conversation with herself.

Working in collaboration with Pete Covington and Jake Webb (Methyl Ethel), Hamilton has created moments of emotion that every listener can relate to. Harking back to the debut album of Ladyhawke, this has little prisms of pop piercing throughout the work. 

Highs of the album include the trippy 'Night Off' and the panoramic 'Labyrinth', in this album that maintains its thread and course throughout the eleven tracks. It is a beautiful joy to listen to this shimmering work from a brand new artist.

Part dream pop and shoegaze, part indie-pop, part electronica, this album has a little bit of something for everyone. If you are fans of Mint Julep or Julia Jacklin you may know what I am talking about.

the future is here but it feels kinda like the past is out now from PIAS Recordings.

Annie Hamilton will headline a show in London on July 31st at The Social, London

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.