Annie Hart - Impossible Accomplice

Hart is a member of the synth trio Au Revoir Simone and this is her solo debut (literally; she plays everything and recorded it in her basement). Although they’ve been around for about 15 years and have released four albums, many readers may know them from their two appearances (performing songs from their 2007 album, The Bird of Music) in David Lynch’s cult TV programme, Twin Peaks: The Return. Hart’s solo material is not unlike the band’s, consisting of dreamy synth pop that slides effortlessly between Depeche Mode/Pet Shop Boys styled dance moves and the occasionally annoying glitch/scratch electronics that have ruined many a synth pop project. In fact, unless her bandmates simply refused to perform these songs, you’d be forgiven if you thought it was simply their fifth album.

There’s a mo-terrific, krautrock groove to lead single ‘Hard To Be Still’ that will draw in fans of the mother ship, along with followers of Danish pop sensations The Raveonettes, or old schoolers who haven’t chucked their Gary Numan albums. I think I hear a riff copped from New Order tucked inside ‘Breathing Underwater’, and  ‘Run To You’ is another winner, its catchy chorus sure to take up residence in your head throughout the summer. Hart downplays the electronics during ‘On The Way Down’ to emphasize her vocal strengths, which have a sort of breathy Nico quality perfectly suited to her easy listening grooves.

A very pleasant way to spend half an hour swaying in the backyard hammock or watching clouds float by overhead.