By Billy Florio

Annie’s Anniemal is not a pop album that you’d expect to hear from the likes of Britney Spears or Kelly Clarkson. The album is too based in electronica and dance-beats for them; and though Britney has dabbled in synthesizers to some success (“Toxic”), Anniemal is far from what you’d normally hear out of her Max Martin penned songs. The closest comparison would be a combination of Kylie Minogue with Daft Punk. Annie merges electronica beats and synths over pop vocals and ’80s dance melodies, but doesn’t always come out with something worth listening to.

Anniemal was first released last year in Europe. Its American release isn’t scheduled until early May, but already the album has made an impact on many critics. It appeared on Pitchforkmedia.com’s top albums of 2004 list, and both the songs “Chewing Gum” and “Heartbeat” found their way onto their top singles list, with “Heartbeat” holding the number one spot.

Anniemal starts off right: full of energy and upbeat pop songs. “Intro” blasts open the album with a crescendo of music that ends with Annie proclaiming “Let’s start the record!” Her calls are answered as one of the best pop songs to come out last year: “Chewing Gum,” begins. An immediately catchy hook and cool synth lines are not all that “Chewing Gum” has, as shown by Annie’s amazing vocals, something that will be her best element in later songs.

The decent “Always Too Late” follows, but then comes the most upbeat song on the album: “Me Plus One.” The next song on the album is “Heartbeat.” Other than being the already mentioned Pitchfork choice, “Heartbeat” is also notable for being the high point of the album. After “Heartbeat,” the songs start to get boring and dull, with only the occasional exception. The song is amazing, though, containing a beat that gets faster and faster as the song goes on, to simulate the title object. Working with Annie’s beautiful voice, this is nearly a perfect pop song. Britney take note.

After the climax of “Heartbeat,” songs like “Helpless In Love,” “Anniemal” and “Happy With Out You” all have their moments of goodness, but are not standouts on the album. “No Easy Love” and “The Greatest Hit,” return to the energy and excellence of the first half of the album and revive an almost dead final run.

It works to say that Anniemal is the pop album for fans of electronica and ’80s dance songs. Annie provides a revival for the danceable pop of ’80s Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and it sounds good, too. There’s no guilt here.