Annie is Annie Lilia Berge Strand, an artist from Norway that had a megahit in underground circles in 2002 with her song Greatest Hit. Sadly her music partner passed away, and Annie faded away at a time when she could have become well know.

Now Annie is back, with the first single from her album Anniemal. Chewing Gum was initially released as a limited 7inch. now it is avaialble in a CD1 and CD2 format. 679 Recordings is a subsidiary of Virgin, so this time she will get the kind of exposure she has deserved for years.

CD1 has remixes by and Royskopp.

CD2 (reviewed here) has a remix by Mylo and two mixes by Headman.

The main (album) version of Chewing Gum was produced by Richard X, who started as a bootleg/mashup artists as Freelance Hellraiser, burt now has gone legit as a popular producer and an artist in his own right, with his CD Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol 1.

The song uses an electronic disco sound (just as Greatest Hit did) and is very catchy. Some people say she sounds like Kylie Minogue, but I don't listen to her so I can't say whether that is true. I do know that I enjoy this single, with lines such as

Oh no, oh no
You've got it all wrong
You think you're chocolate but you're chewing gum

It is never a sure thing when you hear new recordings by artists whom had a song you admired more than two years ago - and Chewing Gum is not as knock-you-over great as Greatest Hit in my opinion - but this new single IS good, and is (hopefully) just a taste of good new material we will be hearing from Annie in the near future.

---Carl, November 2, 2004