Cross Bearer is an EP which defies genres, from an artist who has made a name for herself doing just that. Annie Hardy may be known as one half of dirty grunge-rock outfit Giant Drag. But she is also prolific with her solo work, using this as a sandbox – an outlet for her most creative and experimental visions.
The EP is a five-track offering, released in January 2024. It opens with Annie’s voice muttering a few words, perhaps to herself, before she begins what sounds like ad-libbed noodling on a reverby electric guitar. Similarly, the whole record is full of incidental sounds, background noises, spoken asides and chuckles.
Near the beginning of that first track, ‘Agency’, Annie’s voice comes in, sultry and slurry, at the same time as an other-worldy electronic tone, perhaps a theremin. The track meanders on in this way for 6 minutes, rising and falling tirelessly, in an impressively lengthy stream-of-consciousness monologue, occasionally supplemented with a squelchy 80s keyboard. Lyrics emerge from Annie’s low-energy, slacker-style vocal:”I’m going to go mad … I just need to get away, right away…”, “It’s like every day you go for love it’s an act of self-hatred …”, “British people say the darndest things” …
‘IDK2’ continues in a similar vein, Annie laying out thoughts in an intimate, conversational way – it’s like it’s just you and her – you’re the focus and target; you’re the confidante and sounding-board. This track has moments which feel a little more comfortable, a section which begins to settle into something approaching a traditional melodic chorus, before Annie’s pulls you off somewhere else entirely. Later, there’s a section where Annie suddenly hums the Bridal March and sings “Here comes the bride”.
‘Haunted’ comes next – a shorter track, almost jaunty, more melodic in form, but no less striking, and – true to its name – all the more unsettling. This track is the basis for the first video to be released from the EP. It’s a visual treat, seeing Annie from outside a window, in some sort of turmoil. along with strangely lit, disparate scenes of mysterious rooms, dark skylines and empty trains. These visual elements seem to complete the whole picture, and bring home what Annie is aiming to achieve through her art. She’s obviously coming from an intensely creative place, born of rich and varied experiences and eager to share them with the world.
On the EP, ‘Haunted’ leads into ‘IDK4’, which takes the pace down again and is centred on sparse, minor key guitar notes; and finally ‘Ghost’. That final track speaks in fragments, as if from a half-waking dream, of alien abduction, images of Prince Charming, and the devil that never sleeps. This is accompanied by stop-start snatches of melody, short chord sequences which fleetingly lull you.
Each track on Annie Hardy’s EP is a journey of discovery and mystery – combined, the five tracks are something of an odyssey. It’s not necessarily an easy listen, and far from your typical grunge banger: this is something of a different level, or perhaps a different plane. Annie herself has said of the record that, “All songs were channelled in from another dimension, simultaneously written/recorded in one take without previous knowledge or existence in this realm.” This is probably why Annie sounds relaxed and uninhibited by any preconceptions. Perhaps this is the key to understanding and fully appreciating what she is doing here: to abandon our own notions of musical form and substance, too.
Cross Bearer – Track listing
1. Agency
2. IDK2
3. Haunted
4. IDK4
5. Ghost
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Words by Phil Taylor
THE SONGBIRD 