It's
appropriate that the work of the late Bob Ross, the happily earnest,
afro-sporting host of PBS' The Joy Of Painting, adorns the cover of Annuals'
sophomore full-length Such Fun. The indie-pop group seems to live in one of Ross' fantasy
worlds, brightly skipping through vibrant landscapes to the beat of their own
shining, innocent pop tunes. 2006's Be He Me was a relaxing breath of fresh air
from the orchestral intensity of Arcade Fire and their imitators, and Such
Fun continues
Annuals' knack for taking the hollow sounds of The Cure and The Walkmen and
filling it in with cheery exuberance. Like a Ross painting, Annuals' sound
looks impeccably unblemished; there's something refreshing about the clean
polish of melodic mini-epics such as "Confessor." But, also like Ross
paintings, its songs' easy formula becomes uninteresting with repetition: Such
Fun soars with
wide-open harmonies—none more so than "Springtime," where one can almost
imagine small forest animals joining in with jubilant rapture—but it
seems that now Annuals have the technique down, they're just gleefully
rehashing it.