Album Review

Anna Lena & The Orchids – Anna Lena & The Orchids

• 21st Mar 2013

How best to describe Anna Lena & the Orchids to the uninitiated? Well, there’s some Jeff Buckley, shades of Martin Grech, a big scooped handful of Radiohead, a dash of PJ Harvey, the theatrical elements of Bjork and the savvy pop nods of Bat For Lashes – a cocktail that should prove unpalatable but instead blends into a sinister and creeping multi-layered concoction that demands repeat listens.

The saccharine vocals of View Of My Sanity weigh heavily alongside the plodding piano like a pleasantly sticky audio-treacle. This captivating and ghostly chunk of piano driven dark-pop is simply bursting at the seams with melodramatic, haunting vocal turns and sparse instrumental sections, but that’s not to say Anna is all po-faced misery.

Things take a more major and upbeat turn on Miss Audrie and Six Wheels on the latter half of the release, still with a bubbling intensity but now infused with a wistful hope as the shimmering cymbals wash over the epic conclusion to this incredibly promising debut. Anna Lena is undisputedly One To Watch in a very big way.

Venue: Anna Lena & The Orchids
Support Band: Self Release