Little Annie - With

Little Annie has such a rich history, one that has taken her from her first shows at Max's Kansas City in New York to Dial House in the English countryside, where, with Penny Rimbaud, she recorded her first single for CRASS Records. This led to her debut album Soul Possession, produced by Adrian Sherwood and featuring members of Family Fodder, Flux of Pink Indians, and the On-U Sound collective. Her association with On-U Sound continued on the albums Jackamo and Short and Sweet. Jackamo, released by One Little Indian, was composed while Annie was living in a shed at the bottom of the garden at the home of Adrian Sherwood and Kishi Yamamoto. Short and Sweet, her first album under the name Little Annie, featured Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald of the Sugarhill Gang/Tackhead. In between, there was an ill-fated dalliance with a major label and numerous collaborations with a wide range of groups, some of which are featured here. Along the way, she dropped the names Anxiety and Bandez to become the chanteuse we know and love as Little Annie.

As Little Annie, she fully embraced the role of torch singer on albums such as Songs From The Coal Mine Canary, recorded with Antony now Anohni and Joe Budenholzer on David Tibet's Durtro label, and more extensively on a clutch of great albums with Paul Wallfisch, who remains her main collaborator to this day.

She is, as Marc Almond introduces her on the opening track, the "wonderful, incomparable Little Annie." Taken from his live recording at Wilton's Music Hall, their duet on Charles Aznavour's 'Yesterday When I Was Young' shows them, like the old friends they are, looking back on a life of misspent youthful adventures in pursuit of hedonism. Now, with a lifetime of experience behind them, a song they've both recorded several times takes on new meaning. They inhabit the lyrics with a wry knowingness, joking and acknowledging the passage of time with a sense of regret for the missed opportunities to realise life's full potential.

This is a collection of Little Annie's collaborations with many well-known names in music. It's entitled With, though it could just as easily have been called With Friends, as most of the artists involved have become close companions.

Annie's friendship with Kid Congo dates back to the 1990s, during a Congo Norvell European tour where they met and felt instant kinship. This led to her appearance on 'The Weather, The War' from the first Pink Monkey Birds album, Philosophy and Underwear. Over a spacious, jazzy garage sound, they duet on a song about a collapsing relationship - trading lines with Kid Congo's slow, talkative drawl and Little Annie's wordy, impassioned raspy howl. Annie wrote her lines in response to the ones Kid Congo presented to her, and when surrounded by organ swells, they meet on the lines: "It's the weather, it's the war, I'm confused, I'm a whore, it seems we're never in the mood for each other." It's just joyous.

By the time Little Annie worked with Coil on Love's Secret Domain, she had already recorded with both Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. A longtime friend through David Tibet, she delivered perhaps her best-known vocal contribution to that trinity of groups on 'Things Happen'. Here, Little Annie channels an El Salvadoran (some say Mexican) prostitute - drunk and distracted - as some untold calamity unfolds outside, over Coil's dizzying, deranged electronics. It's an inspired, mood-setting, one-sided monologue. Less so is 'Lefrak City Limits', one of her many collaborations with cult Italian experimentalists Larsen, featuring another of her long-form, episodic monologues. Over an austere backdrop of glistening electronics and chiming guitars that build into blocks of droning sound, accompanied by sweeping viola, Little Annie sketches characters set against a landscape of buildings, singing of changing names, rewriting history, and being reborn.

The best and most fulfilling moments arise from tracks taken from albums made with Baby Dee and Paul Wallfisch. On 'State of Grace', the title track from her collaborative album with Baby Dee (another friend orbiting the world of Anohni and Current 93), esteemed songwriter Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (aka Will Oldham) and Little Annie contemplate change and an imminent departure from New York City. Annie's weathered, smoky tones and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's tender croon trade lines over Baby Dee's gentle piano score. Led by clarinet, the piece gradually swells into a small ensemble arrangement, intertwining their pained, impassioned voices to great effect, as they improvise around their shared desire to escape the city: "While we got something left to lose, We gotta get out of this place, Blow this busted city, And find a state of grace."

Little Annie's work with Paul Wallfisch, her main collaborator on her solo material, is represented here by two tracks from A Bar Too Far. On 'Isle of Weeping Ladies', in deep, husky hues, Little Annie sings of shared cigarettes with an unrequited love over a stunning arrangement of delicate piano, brushed drums, and lap steel guitar. It's a ballad for drinkers and lovers, where she fails to win her "suburban Casanova," leaving her to drown her sorrows in the knowledge of being "the greatest gal you never had." Little Annie is in great form on 'The Soul of August', set against a tender arrangement of piano and drums, enriched by organ, shimmering guitar, and jazzy chords. Her bluesy chanson voice - breathless, knowing, and half-spoken - is delivered with subtle turns of phrase as she tells of a final road trip through a collapsing world, before it reaches a moment of redemption.

On 'Some Things We Do', a collaboration with Swans from their To Be Kind album, the voices of Little Annie and Michael Gira merge almost as one, layered over haunting, wavering, suspended strings as they recite a litany of human behaviours from birth to death. It's a bleak, disarming, and effective ending to a collection of songs from an artist who has lived - and sung - through it all.

With isn't a comprehensive collection of her collaborations though. It is as Cold Spring state "the cream of Little Annie's collaborations with some of the greatest names in the 'alternative' music world". Still, as a result of the focus, there are some pretty big omissions here: there's nothing from her On-U Sound years, or her stripped-back piano work with Anohni and Joe Budenholzer. I really wish they'd included her appearances with Legally Jammin', The Wolfgang Press, Fini Tribe, and Hifi Sean. As it stands, With does give a decent overview of the legend that is Little Annie, a versatile singer who exudes presence, breathing life into character narratives and exposing a frail vulnerability in this collection of collaborations. An unexpected and great release from Cold Spring who continue to surprise. With is released on CD and in black and limited green vinyl from Cold Spring and Cold Spring Bandcamp