SONG OF THE DAY (#195)

'annabelle,' by hail social

i think head hail social dayve hawk may have invented a new genre of music: casio funk [hey, if the shortwave set invented 'victorian funk,' why can't hail social do the same? and as a former and current purveyor of all things casio -- i own one, the tone bank ct-670 -- i take every opportunity to extol its virtues to anyone who'll listen]. hail social's debut, 'modern love and death,' is an album full of said tunes -- prince and m.j.-inspired romps that dayve hawk says 'sound like 80's roller-skating music played by a metal band.'

so it's a bit of a surprise that the album's best track [in my opinion, of course] is 'annabelle,' which sounds neither like prince or m.j., nor roller skate music played by an 80's metal band. instead it's a charming little 'indie-pop' ode to one annabelle, a girl who never knew the words to any songs, made them up as she sang along, and who led the neighborhood to draft a new set of laws. i don't know about you, but i want to meet annabelle.

but the best part of the song is only having to wait 41 seconds for the chorus--and what a great chorus it is. it's also easily dayve's best melody [he sometimes seems to struggle to find a hook and some songs are so cheesy you might well just spray cheese whiz directly into your mouth]. so here's hoping that head social's next album, which is already in the can, er, hard drive, gives us more great pop songs like 'annabelle' and fewer songs that make me wanna spray cheese whiz into my mouth. if it does, we'll all be hail socialites. believe it.

��� hail social: annabelle
��� hail social: one u love