Search - Annie Gallup :: Swerve

Swerve, by Annie Gallup

Gareth White | New York, NY United States | 06/20/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Swerve is the fifth album recorded by Annie Gallup for the Prime CD Label. Remaining true to her unique amalgam of poetry and music the songs on the album are short stories incorporating musical elements. Her songs aren't necessarily about the melody, it is simply a tool that Annie uses to tell her intricate tales. The first track, Money, is both funny and quirky as well as touching in a melancholy way. It is the story of a woman leaving her lover and all the adventures that follow. The honesty of the song is palpable, Annie says the things that everyone feels but won't admit. Three Bills is bouncy and catchy, and makes one laugh in that head shaking way, when you have to laugh in order not to scream about the unjustness of it all. This effect is something that only Annie Gallup could create. My Mother's Daughter is a beautifully painful song that captures how hard it is to say goodbye when you have to, but don't want to. The music on the album brings together so many emotions of the most fragile kind. The straightforward intensity with which they are sung helps to rough them up a bit, taking them out of a pretend world and putting them into a real life perspective. In a time when it feels like music has lost its honesty Annie emerges with songs so crucially candid that you feel like you've known her forever. Or at least you should have."

Distaff Leonard Cohen

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 11/21/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Swerve" is my 3rd Annie Gallup disc after "Cause & Effect" (94) & "Courage My Love" (98). She seems to grow and expand with each new offering. On "Swerve," she combines the edgy & the offbeat into an appetising blend with an expressive breathy voice like a Leonard Cohen record with more beat. "When you told me, honey, you'd love me forever was your money on the end of the world?" she sings on the driving opener "Money." Her songs like "True" appear like a carefully chosen stream of consciousness, "That night he called me up & told me it was over, I heard trouble in the street, angry voices, breaking glass, cries for help." For me, her craft updates the beatnick era of 50's poetry where cool cats snapped fingers to the beat such as "What I Know" where the bass thumps engagingly as words stream and bounce everywhere. "Great Distance" is a soft dreamy track, "We made love in that stormy city to the Complete Robert Johnson Box Set." "One Two" zigzags between minimalist guitar and throbbing drum, "And it might just be a game, but no, we were equipped for every joyous destructive perversity." "My Mother's Daughter" has a bit more traditional song structure. "Three Bills" is a hilarious bongo rap. Gallup offers a wistful song portrait on the slow "Georgia O'Keefe." "Red Hair" is a song for guys with a thing for red heads. There may be a melody somewhere as the guitar meanders through "Absecon Bay." One of the most fully fleshed tracks, "The Sky," has a bouncy beat, "I met a man they called The Sky; I pronounced him ugly, then I fell in love so crazy." The CD concludes with midtempo "The End," "I've been up all night with a bottle of blackjack & a Bible." Annie Gallup is an engaging recording artist like a female Leonard Cohen who plays the power of lyrics against musical inflections to create pieces with stunning originality. It was good for me! Enjoy!"