Anni Hogan - Lost In Blue

Anni Hogan might be best known from her association with Marc Almond. She’s collaborated with The The’s Matt Johnson, toured with The Style Council and worked with the likes of Barry Adams and Orange Juice’s Zeke Manyika. Among many others. She came on my radar via a collaboration with Nick Cave on her EP, Kickabye. Her latest, Lost In Blue is a dark collection of atmospheric cabaret songs sung in a competing roster of voices. Among them, Kid Congo Powers and Lydia Lunch.

‘Lost Somewhere’ begins with Anni’s dulcet vocals and eerie atmospherics that eventually erupt into a kaleidoscope of sounds both spaced out and ambient. The sleazy lounge lizard routine of ‘My Career’ follows with Kid Congo on vocals, laying down sarcasm with a tongue in cheek flair. On “Death Bed Diva’ things get even more fun with Richard Strange’s (Doctors of Madness) ominous baritone on a tune rife with seedy humor and Bluesy atmosphere. The sinister ‘Silk Paper’ has the Germanic vocals of Wolfgang Flür (Kraftwerk), which can’t help but bring Blixa Bargeld to mind.

‘Ghosts of Soho’ is a jazzy torch song, interrupted by the abrasive London beat poetry of Celine Hispiche’s vocals. ‘Blue Contempt’ continues in this vein, with Lydia Lunch’s indulgently ravaged vocals. At this point, Lost In Blue begins to sound like a Poetry Slam with musical celebrity cameos.

The windswept, mournful cabaret of ‘Thunderstuck’ returns Anni to the microphone. With an alluring, Julie London ‘Cry Me A River’ vibe. It’s an album highlight and one can’t help but wonder how great this would be if Anni handled all the vocal duties herself, without all the guests poking their heads in the door.

Amid woozy, jazzy horns, the ridiculously overwrought vocals of Scarlet West chew the scenery on ‘Making Blackpool Rock’. A song that would be beguiling if it didn’t verge on a god awful self- parody of Siouxsie Sioux. Elsewhere, Flür returns to narrate ‘Golden Light’ which sounds like mid 80’s soundtrack music. The Virgin Prune’s Gavin Friday continues this practice on self-consciously dark atmospherics of, ‘Angels of Romance’.

The album concludes with some bluesy harmonica on ‘Lost In Blue’ with some refreshingly unaffected vocals from John Fiddler. While it lacks the dark theatrics of the other tracks, it sounds like it's from a completely different album.

While there is nothing to complain about musically here, vocally there are just too many guests running in and out of the door making for a distracting listen. At a certain point, it all comes off like a celebrity open mic night with a great house band. That said there are some great moments, especially when Hogan takes center stage.  

Special limited signed copies of the album will be available to order here: https://www.lexermusic.com/anni-hogan