9.25.2013

Annalibra :: "Battle World"


In a combination of some of the riot grrrl pop of Le Tigre and the mid-tempo progressions of bands like Fleetwood Mac, Annalibra, a four-piece from Des Moines, offer an anti-anthem on "Battle World." Embracing the uncertainty of the tiny universe they create here, vocalist Anna Gebhardt asks, "Who am I/and who are you/and how did we arrive here?" It's their "this is not my beautiful house" moment, the drums just beginning to lift off the downbeat, the rich middle section of "Battle World" with its driving guitars and Gebhardt's brave alto working its way through the maw. Undamaged by this uncertainty, the band settles on "Who cares where the world came from?", each word hitting nearly in time with the snare drum, an insistence bread on some fringe brand of Midwestern existentialism. The hooks, Gebhardt's lilting voice, emerge as immediately singable, a short rock song that demands to be replayed and chanted along with. As the band suggests with its blithe nihilism: Who cares where this came from?

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