There’s a lot to be said for traditional ideas about song structure, rhyme schemes and such, but singer-songwriter and poet Anne Malin’s work offers a fine example of what you can get to when you let go of them. Her latest LP Summer Angel, released via indie Dear Life Records in June, uses nontraditional techniques to further emotional and sensory communication that feels like it’s touching some other plane of existence.
Importantly, it always feels like the experience is grounded in the plane we live on, aided and abetted by the band that Anne Malin and her partner Will Ringwalt-Johnson assembled for the project under ace producer-engineer Andrija Tokic, which includes reed master JayVe Montgomery and multi-instrumentalist Trevor Nikrant. A prime example comes in the closing track “Burdens,” in which Anne Malin examines the long shadow cast by trauma — and the ways we can try to heal from it — over a shambling folk-rock groove. “I climbed out from the lion’s jaws,” she begins, “and I took some teeth with me, too.”
Today, we’re very pleased to premiere the music video for the song. Filmed by Nylah Bannister (on what looks like VHS) and edited by singer-songwriter Abby Johnson, the piece features choreography by Sari Hoke. Hoke’s costume, which makes me think a little of Mummenschanz, includes regal purple robes, a spiky black crown and a mask with no mouth, but whose eyes sometimes suggest pleading and other times bewilderment. The setting appears to be the height of summer, in a lush green space, and she dances around Anne Malin like a kind of ghost, a bit of the past that doesn’t want to get left behind.
Check it out above, and grab a copy of Summer Angel from your favorite record store or via Bandcamp. Keep an eye on Anne Malin’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter profiles for updates.
