Annabel Lee Dances This Mess Around

The B-52’s (Warner Bros)

Annabel Lee Dances This Mess Around: L.A. alt-rocker Annabel Lee told us about her love for a B-52’s gem.

Annabel Lee: There are few albums that have influenced me more than the self titled 1979 album by the B52’s. My parents were really great about giving me a select few CD’s that would end up informing my taste, and this was one of them. Honestly, as a singer, my goal is to sound like Kate, Cindy, and Fred all in one.

Firstly, track three, “Dance This Mess Around,” is my favorite song EVER. It was the song you’d catch me lip-syncing and writhing around to as puberty coursed through my veins. The way that Cindy screams and growls the lead vocal in that song, commanding, sexy, volatile, and out of fucking control, changed my life when I heard it. It awakened a part of myself that was soon to unravel in my teen years, and still continues to stir me to this day every single time I hear it.

The B-52’s brand of punk/art music is completely unique. And the sound of powerful, beautifully strange harmonies, surfy secret agent guitars, with hilarious aggressive yelling, was a miracle to me the first time I heard it. The B52’sushered me into my own weird in a serious and important way.

With zany and unruly tracks like “6060-842”, “There’s a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)”, and the very cool and strut inducing “Hero Worship”, this thing is such a blast. I love it from top to bottom. The landscape is everything. Sonically, you’re going to outer space, then to a beach, then to a party where nobody wants to dance with you, then to a grungy bathroom, and so much more. It is perfect.

Annabel Lee Dances This Mess Around: Annabel Lee’s album Mother’s Hammer is out now.

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