LET’S set the record straight from the start: Annie Taylor isn’t a solo artiste, it’s a band.
And let’s add to that: Annie Taylor, hailing from Switzerland, is a very fine and classy fuzzpop psych prospect indeed.
They formed back in 2017, releasing two now-scarce singles and taking themselves out on tour across their home country, France and Italy.
An EP, Not Yours!, followed in 2019; and today they’ve unveiled the lovely girlpop of “Where the Grass is Greener” as a taster for their debut album, Sweet Mortality, which is out on September 4th via Taxi Gauche. Be enchanted by the accompanying video, which we’ve embedded down where the words stop.
It’s a sweet little short film; and in that it mirrors the track. Super 8 sunshine, gas guzzlers and the strip leaves you no doubt these guys (and one girl) are rightfully and righteously enthralled to a brilliant Stateside fuzz-guitar aesthetic. Beats a wet weekend in Clacton, right?
The lyrics lend a bittersweet edge, concerning as they do how to deal with drastic changes in life and learning to accept such circumstances (Hmm. Seems quite relevant ….). The song swaggers its hips over an infectious, empowering hookline: “I’ve found a way out”.
Vocalist and guitarist Gini Jungi explains: “’Where the Grass is Greener’ began to take shape in Palm Springs, California, after I accidentally attended a drum circle evening, which unexpectedly turned into an evening of unexpected fun, and somehow I felt peaceful and relieved after that levitating night.”
The four-piece is completed by bassist Michael Mutter, guitarist Tobias Arn and drummer Jan Winkler. They holed up at DALA Studios in Winterthur and produced an album they’re proud to categorise as “grunge psychedelic-rock … as steeped in pop as it is in psychedelia.”
They ain’t having you on, chaps. Hear Gini’s 60s’ girl-group vocal melody, the way those guitars chime and fizz. I’m getting that classic sound of The Raveonettes; of The Jesus and Mary Chain roundabout “Sometimes Always”. It’s a sound we’ll always come back to, simply because … it’s great.
Annie Taylor’s Sweet Mortality is out on vinyl come September 4th: place your order here.
