Complete or Completing

Oooohhhh... Myyyyyyy... GOSH! Annuals released a UK only EP and it completely didn't even cross my radar! Ish! And it's got the the exclusive folk jam of Ease My Mind on there!


Now see, Annuals' Be He Me (Ace Fu) was one of my fave albums of last year alongside Evangelicals' So Gone...

You could even say they are my favourite Canadian band that's not really Canadian. They are in fact from Raleigh, North Carolina and are comprised of 6 rather fantastic individuals revolving around the formiddable frontman Adam Baker. The rest of the cast aways and cut outs (a rotating commune of multi-instumentalists throughout a performance) are Kenny Florence (Guitar), Zack Oden (drums/guitar), Nick (Donzel) Radford (drums), Mike Robinson (bass), and (the pretty pretty) Anna Spence (piano/synth).

What grabs me and puts me to shame at the same time is the fact that they are all in their early twenties, none of them a wisper older than 22. This youthful bunch of musicians' sound is a sprawling tapestry of Pet Sounds style layer upon layer of beautiful melodies interwoven with samples and the like. Be He Me was a busy but perfectly produced album, a headphone junkies' wet dream. Influences are a dash on the hopes of ever pinning them down... An all too familiar animal powered collective striking a perfect balance between pop and experimentation.

With an explosive mix of Islands, Evangelicals, Broken Social Scene, The Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear and Sufjan Stevens, they inject and eject throughout the course of the album in such a fluid fashion that they create a sound of their own in the end. Something familiar yet new and refreshing... Anthemic moments abide with mighty Arcade Fire proficiency, and the gleeful shouts evoke something of a mix between Tim Kasher (of Cursive) and Evangelicals' Josh Jones. Of course they also keep good company, touring with the likes of Blonde Redhead, The Walkmen and Aquaduct.

To top it all off are the lyrics, portraying intense emotion from a creative genius in the making, where Adam strikes an intensity that completely renounces his age.

So if you have not yet discovered this band, go now and rediscover a sound that's been long out of wack with your collection and fuse the gaps with their offerings so you can restore the balance. It will be well worth it I promise!

Ease My Mind (from Big Zeus)

Bonus:
Brother (from Be He Me)
Bleary Eyed (from Be He Me)
+ Myspace

It's show time, with drinks to spill.
Hear my mouth, I've got the sounds
to send you back home with peace of mind.
- Ri