Anna Burch - Quit The Curse

Rating:

Anna has polished her brand of soft, saccharine, harmonic indie rock.

Anna Burch’s debut 'Quit the Curse' is a fluent collection of sun-soaked guitar pop that keeps going for your jugular. The album is a ragged tale of nonchalant lovers and self-assurance, under Detroit’s stark city lights.

Opener ‘2 Cool 2 Care’ is an honest serenade to an aloof lover, Anna’s crooning vocal scathing its victim. The layered guitars and delicate harmonies continue throughout the record. ‘Tea-Soaked Letter’ is a delectably catchy single, its spiralling guitars enveloping Anna’s spiked lyrics (“I feel so alone/I forgot to fake the way that I was feeling/now all my cards are showing”).

‘Asking 4 a Friend’ takes an overtly darker turn, the slower track not trying to hide its ridicule. With lyrics “If memory is selective/and pain is all relative/it only sinks in/when you’re the victim”, and the repeated, “you’re faking/you’re faking”, 'Quit the Curse' is a record that relies on its haunting vocals. It quickly becomes evident that Anna’s velvety vocal and barbed lyrics drive her songwriting.

Stronger tinges of folk and country bleed into the latter half of the record; ‘Belle Isle’ is an unashamed love song with vintage country colouring its impenitence. Due to 'Quit the Curse'’s brevity, there is no opportunity to get bored, and Anna ends the album on a high, with accusatory ‘Yeah You Know’, and the sticky sweet ‘With You Everyday’.

Sonically cohesive, the record plays with folk and country alongside its indie rock roots. Anna has polished her brand of soft, saccharine, harmonic indie rock, and with that, presents these nine songs as a modern tale of cities and people. 'Quit the Curse' is a cogently written record, characterised by its barbed lyrics and dreamy instrumental. Erin Bashford