Anne Clark
Pressure Points

THE REVIEW

In the landscape of British new-wave of the '80s, Anne Clark carved out a unique place for herself, a singular figure halfway between a singer-songwriter and a poetess. Her most evident characteristic is not performing songs, but reciting texts over an instrumental background typically entrusted to synthesizers and electronic percussion. Thus, Anne Clark doesn't sing, she declaims; she doesn't tune, she seems to perform instead, yet the result is strangely hypnotic and engaging. These stylistics belong to the albums released in those years, and therefore also to "Pressure Points", her fourth work, released in 1985.

Produced by John Foxx, the frontman of the early Ultravox, the album is influenced by his authoritative presence, especially in the exclusively electronic cut given to the sound on which Clark's voice rests, always gritty yet dry, full of pathos yet never cloying as she recounts the anxieties of daily life and a perpetually gray and hostile world.

Nine brief tracks for just 31 minutes of music (when reissued on CD, Anne Clark's works are usually paired), "Pressure Points" is a distillation of metropolitan anxieties through which the author wanders, "scared of streets that breed malice and hate" ("Red Sands"). For Anne, the world is "an open prison where I walk up and down / like through a tunnel, because there is no place I can go" ("Alarm Call"). Even relationships with others are conflictual: "I don’t associate myself with all those people I can do without / those who never leave me a doubt, who only care about their little selfish lives" ("World Without Warning"). And so on.

Far from being depressing, despite the themes addressed, Anne Clark's music is rhythmic, sometimes aggressive, sometimes close to dance, and has the ability to engage. Without seeking refuge behind the protective veil of a pop song, hers is a voice laid bare, at the center of an imaginary and deserted stage. And it remains among the most particular offerings of the period.