On her Surface Tension EP, Annahstasia's Love Goes Where it Must
Come for the voice: Annahstasia’s is stunning. It has deep body in the middle, urgent and unapologetic. It’s cradled by whispers on either end–to which she flits up and exhales down–swaddling her melodies in velvet. Stay for the arrangements: Derrick Gee, a lovely music man who I’ll link below, throws out “Nina Simone meets Sufjan Stevens.” The mix holds space for that sort of haunting beauty. A nylon-string guitar paces one’s quickening heartbeat. A lone synth organ quivers in the back. A chorus hums their agreement.
The 12-minute, three-song EP to me feels like the inevitable journey of love’s unknowable intentions. “Saturday”’s pleas of private romance are answered in “Stress Test,” as Annahstasia descends straight into another’s heart. Or maybe she’s already there. It doesn’t matter that she reminds them of a previous love. “Getting in either way,” she sings repeatedly, toying with the phrase, relishing the surrender.
“Sunday” is the rich centerpiece between the two. It’s a bit darker, loosing the threads of something heavier and more difficult. Here, love won’t let her sit still in captivity on someone’s shelf. By the end, she slips free to a gentle fanfare. Muted brass melts and sighs as she makes her escape.
Derrick Gee is a comforting, deeply knowledgable presence on all of my socials. He oozes kindly charm. Follow him. He shouted out "Sunday" in a clip from a listening club stream, and lo and behold, he and Annahstasia actually connected, and she guest hosted his radio program a week later. The internet can be frickin' sick sometimes.
