Shy, retiring singer-songwriter? Appearances can be deceptive; this set a powerful tour de force of emotive heft from Annie Dressner.

Release Date: 5th April 2024

Label: Dharma Records

Format: CD / Vinyl / Digital

Dressner is one of the more engaging figures we have on our shores, seldom failing to enliven and interest a crowd, whether it be in an intimate club setting or on a festival stage. I say “we” with some trepidation, she actually being the USA’s loss, having transplanted to Cambridge, UK, for these past few years. And, whilst often filed under folk, there is rather more there than that occasionally constricting title, singer-songwriter perhaps a better place, if still incomplete, to put her personal and heartfelt songs. Furthermore, here she is backed up by an electric band, rather than the solo acoustic mode or the semi-acoustic trio she is currently on tour as part of, promoting this very album, the mood almost more of power-pop, should there stil be such a thing.

We like her, here at The Barrier, catching her surprise mini-set at Cambridge Folk Festival last summer, she also having written for us, around her love for the music of Ben Kweller. This is actually her fourth solo release, and her first with a label other than her own. There has also been her estimable duet work with David Ford, with a couple of, again, self-released recordings. The album cover captures a much younger Dressner, looking into a mirror whilst brushing her hair. Future dreaming, perhaps? I am uncertain as to whether it was before or after singing into the same hairbrush, bouncing on her bed, but I would be disappointed if she weren’t. Let’s see if we can work out to whom.

Black And White is first up, a briskly strummed roundabout of a song, her comforting warm embrocation of a voice belying the nature of the song, a wistful reflection on heartbreak, a sad song set in a shimmer of melancholy. Black and white? As in it never is. Smoke rings of electric guitar hang about her words, and an organ fills out the stage, a rhythm section discreetly weighing on as it unfolds. The chorus has a one of those hooks that catch you singing it, later in the day, the barb of the words often only then imprinting. A questioning “do you want to start a fight” then starts off the track of the same title, before she adds “I don’t have the energy“. Rather than a pass-ag provocation, it sounds to come more from weary resignation. The guitars are on full jangle and, with the organ ice-rinking a background swell, this short number suddenly reveals an influence earlier unseen or heard, my ears suddenly hearing a strong evocation of the best of the Bangles, her voice, even, a not too distant relative of Susanna Hoffs.

I Just Realised goes initially off on a tangent, before becoming almost nursery rhymy, with a glorious double-tracked vocal chorus, as it drops into a minor key. With twangy guitar and shards of pedal steel it is a beauty. Now the first of two songs about furniture, Big Grey Couch is a lively mandolin rush, again with accompanying swirly organ that conjures up a frisson of R.E.M. It isn’t actually about a couch, I dare say, it no doubt a metaphor. A paint stripping guitar solo fills the middle eight of this song, it as good a time as any to note that much the extraneous musical accompaniment on this record comes from Paul Goodwin, aka Mr Dressner. Leather Chair then has a neat picked guitar motif, with again that vague aftertaste of R.E.M. lingering, albeit with the much sweeter vocal of Dressner. This is a song about her late grandmother, presumably the occupant of the chair. Cello adds what only cello can add, with realisation that this album is one classy piece of work, elegant songs that are well framed.

Dance We Do returns to Bangle territory, a melodic chug that I can see an audience being invited to sing with. Less likely for that is the densely critical 18 Years, a quietly savage song about (family?) relationships and the damage therein. A song that closes a door on one, anyway. Once more the content feels all the harsher through the sweetness of the vocals, which here also feature Polly Palusma’s backing. Lofted Houses is perhaps one too many similar sounding songs in succession. It isn’t a bad song, far from it, there just needing to be some variation to prevent it blending too closely to the songs before it. (Out of context, and order, it is actually a corker, amplifying that shame about sequencing, with some gorgeous Farfisa organ courtesy Cambridge’s busiest musician, Boo Hewerdine).

Fresh from her 48 Hours project with David Ford and the subsequent tour, After The Storm, is a co-write with the behatted Eastbournian. It is a slower and acoustic, a gentle song about post break up recovery; possibly even the next part of the 18 Years journey. A complete break from the styles present elsewhere, had this been popped in earlier, it is feasible there would have been a better ebb and flow. But, having appropriately ebbed the mood for that one, the next (and final) song leaps so hard out the traps as to wonder whether, like the title, Should Have Seen It Coming. Led off with pounding drums, and with harmony vocal from Steven Adams (Broken Family Band), it is almost shocking in its intensity, almost new wave in energy and, yes, quite Bangly. I’m still reeling.

If Dressner thought this might be easier, I guess she doesn’t mean the album, the songs sounding to flow out of her without much in the way of any block. That probably underscores the amount of effort put in, I am sure, but, minor gripes aside, it has paid off and with credit. It would be grand to hear these songs with a full band, but I would be surprised if they didn’t still sound good, however they get an airing. As stated, she is on tour now and has an extensive schedule of festival appearance logged in as well.

Dressner’s tour dates are here, and you can catch a glimpse of the video for 18 Years…

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