Anna Belle: ‘Annalogue’ explores a variety of styles and landscapes

Currently a songwriting major at Belmont University, during her first semester of college, Anna Belle wrote, produced, performed, and mixed her first full album, entitled ‘Annalogue’, which features her best friend Joanna, on the track ‘Letting Go’. The album, released on January 1st, 2018, is the next step in a long passionate musical affair for the eclectic artist, who taught herself the piano at a very young age and wrote her first major song at 12. In addition to being involved in choir, theatre, and community service, during high school, she also took on a role as a freelance recording artist, making hundreds of sales including several projects which received recognition internationally. In 2017, Anna Belle released a project EP under the name Eunmi with Visual Visions entitled “Sunrise: The First EP” as an homage to K-pop and dance music.

The strengths of the album, ‘Annalogue’, includes the immense sonic diversity from track to track, plus the healing and soothing found in the sheer beauty of Anna Belle vocal delivery. To just sit and let her voice wash over you, floating you away to a nicer part of the pool, is very welcoming element.

Prime examples of her ability to do that are to be found right from the start on the ethereal ‘Misguided’, which has a certain salty and sweet quality filled with subtle harmonizing, ‘Letting Go’, with its room-filling atmosphere, and deep basslines. All throughout though, Anna Belle allows herself the room to explore a variety of styles and landscapes without ever sounding tired, repetitive or grasping at relevance.

She sounds comfortable enough in her skin to experiment with static soundscapes, fuzzy synths and even some arcade-era sound effects. If each song represents a seismic leap into different sonic territories, it is in the service of disrupting restrictive norms of genre.

Hence you will find contrasting tracks like the electro-pop rhythms of ‘Future City’ and then the baroque slant of ‘Melody Melody’. The whole experience is mystical and enchanting, as Anna Belle’s songs swell they become apparent as instruments of inner healing. I particularly experienced this sensation with the track ‘There’s No Song’. It’s as if her voice transcends the lyrics, each and every time.

No matter how hard I try to concentrate on what she is saying, the hypnotic tone of Anna Belle’s voice drags me somewhere else. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? Definitely the first assumption, considering that music is supposed to generate emotion, above all else. This music never leaves you stranded in any one place as Anna Belle seeks to transport you into her world.

How do you resist the journey on a richly melodic and hip-swaying song like ‘Alone / Together’? Simple. You don’t! Anna Belle regards her songs as independent entities, each requiring their own unique treatment, which at times leads her to make all sorts of unusual decisions about how to dress them up. And that’s the greatest strength of her artistic talent.

Anna Belle is unpredictable, unrestrained, and flamboyant, with a total disregard for the norms of the regular pop song. She confidently wields this status, dispensing colorful songwriting and evoking complex emotions with inimitable skill and endearing charm.

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