Anouk
Together Alone

A beautiful Dutch girl like an angel, with a sullen look and a handful of songs against everyone and everything: that's how Anouk presented herself in 1997. To launch TOGETHER ALONE, her debut album, the single «Nobody’s Wife» did the trick, full of energy (don't miss her video for the 1998 Festivalbar at Piazzola sul Brenta) and with lyrics of absolute female self-affirmation: a big hit here as well.

The other songs are not all so engaging, yet the album is still enjoyable to listen to, even after so many years; among the best I would rank the title-track and then «It Is So Hard»; «Fluid Conduction»; the blues of «Time Is A Jailer» and also the concluding «Mood Indigo» (which at least in the title pays homage to Duke Ellington's namesake track).

It requires forgiving her a little narcissism in the writing (“Here I am / I am the attraction of the show / I am a wonderful creature / This is what I am” in «The Other Side Of Me») as well as some inconsistency in the performance.

As for her musical influences, I would place her alongside Melissa Etheridge for the executional flair, and alongside Debbie Harry for the stage presence, to whom she is also brought closer by a certain physical resemblance.

Regarding the graphical part of the album, the lyrics are presented clearly and legibly, which is always beneficial, while the cover photo effectively interprets the idea of a girl cornered in the tight corner of life: with her back against the wall, but determined to fight to the end. The voice occasionally betrays a Dutch accent, which suits perfectly, and the overall result of the album is more than respectable.

Here, Anouk passed like a meteor, but in the Netherlands, she is still more than active, and it’s amusing to discover that – after shouting to the world that she didn’t want to be anybody’s wife («Nobody’s Wife», indeed) – in real life, she ended up getting married three times!