She writes like a wordsmith, plays like a rockstar.īodies were moving and lights were flashing, and being there, amongst Annie’s music, made me think that you can be anywhere and still feel a sense of home. Like an electrified dreamscape of precious poetics, Annie’s ethereal music is bolstered by a kind of song writing that feels both unique in its specificity and universal in its search for feeling.

With an album released last year – the perfectly titled the future is here but it feels kinda like the past – and with the promise of more music on the horizon, Annie’s set was a mix of old favourites and unreleased newbies, with the delightful bonus Charli XCX cover to finish off the night. It’s unsurprising that Annie’s fans stretch far and wide, beyond country borders and over hemispheres each and every one of her songs seem to touch so succinctly on some kind of universal human feeling, be it heartbreak or love, losing or finding yourself. The final gig of their European tour, Annie and CLEWS have been moving the show from country to country over the last month, playing everywhere from sold-out shows in Portugal to poky pubs in the UK. Hailing from Eora/Sydney back home in Aus, Annie and her band co-headlined the show with fellow Aussies, sister duo CLEWS, supported by the local Frankfurt indie-pop five-piece Urban Socks. The way in which they were the same, for me, for one night, in a dingy club band room down the backstreets over by the River Main, was seeing Annie Hamilton play. Frankfurt was like Naarm/Melbourne in a few ways, but different in most.

But in the right light, on the right bridge, with the right angle of the skyline, with the right music to soundtrack it all, it almost felt like it was. I listened to new music and I listened to old favourites, but for all the playlists and albums and algorithmic recommendations, there was one artist I kept coming back to.Ī week before I flew home, I saw her play a show in city that wasn’t home. The thing I kept reaching out for, that could soundtrack me everywhere I went, was music.

I reached for familiarity to link me from each day to the next, something to carry me through all the cities and corners and crooks and crannies of the world I’d never seen before. Over a European summer, I moved from country to country in a hemisphere where everything felt foreign.

Annie hamilton writer