Dorks And Losers

If you truly love what you do for a liv­ing, then would it be con­sid­ered work?

This is the conun­drum I faced when I ini­tially described North Carolina-native Annu­als who in addi­tion to releas­ing an EP (Wet Zoo) ear­lier this year also released a debut album for its sis­ter band/side-project Sun­fold mere months ago. The sig­nif­i­cance of the lat­ter release is that Sun­fold retains the entire line-up through a game of non-elimination musi­cal chairs.

Adam Baker leads the six-piece out­fit (that also includes Kenny Flo­rence, Mike Robin­son, Zach Oden, Anna Spence, and Nick Rad­ford) to a some­what rekin­dling or even a tin­ker­ing of its musi­cal sen­si­bil­ity with their sopho­more album Such Fun. Either view­point requires lis­ten­ing to Sunfold’s Toy Tug­boats, and even then you’re likely to hear the sim­i­lar­i­ties rather than the differences.

After lis­ten­ing to Such Fun, quite the oppo­site hap­pens. The open­ing “Con­fes­sor” is the chief cat­a­lyst with its jam band-like melodies and group sing-along har­monies. That might not mean much until “Hot Night Hounds” fol­lows with a few harder-than-expected gui­tar riffs. While this isn’t wholly new ter­ri­tory for the group, one does appre­ci­ate the more tra­di­tional ballad/up-tempo hybrids they are known for.

The first half of “Spring­time” offers that seren­ity we all need (just imag­ine your­self in the album cover), but just as quickly brings you back to real­ity which might not be as bad as you think. Lis­ten to “Always Do” for another dose (this time with a more coun­try flavor).

It’s inter­est­ing to hear the band make some­thing with a lit­tle more jolt (“Talk­ing”), but it is also com­fort­ing to lis­ten to more sooth­ing num­bers like the lullaby-esque “The Tape” and the peace­ful ser­e­nade “Blue Ridge.”

After sev­eral exe­cu­tions of the repeat but­ton, it’s safe to say that the Annu­als’ lat­est effort is def­i­nitely a tin­ker­ing with a touch of voilà. Work is for losers, and the album title pretty much reflects the band’s feel­ings for this point in time.

[photo via Autumn de Wilde]

[pho­tos via Sneak Attack Media]
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Track list:

1. Con­fes­sor
2. Hot Night Hounds
3. Spring­time
4. Down The Moun­tain
5. Always Do
6. Talk­ing
7. Hard­wood Floor
8. Hair Don’t Grow
9. The Tape
10. Blue Ridge
11. Wake

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