Annuals

Briefly anointed as the Triangle's Next Big Thing when their 2006 debut Be He Me was fawned over in the blogosphere, Annuals have instead settled back down to earth and gone about the business of discovering its true musical voice, largely in a hype-free environment.

Songwriter Adam Baker was just 20 years old when MP3s from Be He Me began popping up in all the right web-places, but Baker and his band's youth—half of whom began playing together at the age of 13—showed in the full-length's multiple personalities. While the blend of bubbly synths, enormous Arcade Fire choruses, delicate Sufjan Stevens folk and Animal Collective-influenced skittering beats sonically checked all the right names, the whole added up to less than those parts. Precocious music-making joy and over-reaching pretence performed a pas de deux throughout.

But the buzz landed the band a spot on Sony imprint Canvasback Music for their next LP, 2008's considerably more focused Such Fun. Everything from the melodies and open-air arrangements to the lyrics and instrumentation showed maturation. Even an appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show and a growing rep for enthusiastic live gigs didn’t help, however; symptomatic of our cultural ADD, better songs and a more cohesive full-length didn't mean increased interest or sales. Annuals were just as quickly booted from the major label garden.

Retrenching followed for the sextet, resulting in the 2010 EP, Sweet Sister. The five songs were recorded with BJ Burton (The Love Language, Megafaun) and featured new or newly redeployed elements—hip-hop beats on "Loxstep," sampling on "Turncloaking," straightforward country rock on the cover "Flesh and Blood"—that seemed to alter the band's personality yet again. As their name suggests, the only consistent thing about Annuals might be the band's quest for change. —John Schacht