Annie’s ‘The A&R EP’: Stream The Full Release

Annie‘s track record is pretty much unmatched: On her first two albums, the Norwegian pop songbird collaborated with Royksopp, Richard X and Xenomania for glittering electropop that was equal parts aching and exhilarating, but she’s taken a more focused eye with her third release and first EP, The A&R EP. Produced by Richard X (although Little Boots and Hannah Robinson have writing credits on “Back Together” and “Hold On,” respectively), the EP is taut and lean, heavy on hooks and filler-free.

“Back Together” is ’70s disco-lite, while “Mixed Emotions” evokes the Scandinavian Italo disco of Sally Shapiro at her best; “Hold On” is gorgeously loose. Consider my bias since I premiered it here on Idolator last week, but “Ralph Macchio” might be the highlight, a sugar-sweet 8-bit masterpiece. Meanwhile, “Invisible” feels like a lost ’90s deep rave cut. It spans several decades of electro influence, but it all sounds decidedly modern — and like Annie doing what she does best, synths and glacial vocals and singalong refrains.

In short? It’s all just really, really good. Stream it on SoundCloud, then buy it on iTunes.