Annie Hamilton - stop and smell the lightning (2024)

The Sydney artist’s second album builds on her thickly textured pop. Annie hamilton’s second album follows through on the textural thrills of her 2022 debut album, the future is here but it feels kinda like the past. Reuniting with Methyl Ethel’s Jake Webb as a co-producer, the Sydney multi-hyphenate builds sonic playgrounds around songs that retain the spontaneity of voice memos and home demos. Set to a motorik pulse and citing a memorable scene in Legally Blonde, “DYNAMITE ●~*” is hypnotic bubblegum centred on the refrain “You set me off like dynamite”. Equally heady is the stuttered pop of “without you”, a song about moving on after getting in a few final jabs (“Yeah, I still want you/But only for maybe an hour or two”).

Other tracks here may be more mellow and diffuse, but the majority of them share a smeared, psychedelic quality that’s not limited to any one style or era. That said, the 73-second “crush song” is very ’90s, right down to the way noisier guitar kicks in partway through. Meanwhile, a brash bevy of layers adds a surreal edge to the empowering “slut era” and the loopy “talk”. Hamilton approaches indie pop as something tangible and always in motion, which makes for immersive listening.