Intelligent Songwriting Taken to the Next Level

The new Indie-Pop album Paper Plane by Anya Marina will remind you of all the crushes and relationships you had during your teens. This record consists of twelve songs beautifully blended with each other in a story telling fashion. It has the right mix of upbeat and slow paced songs well knitted with each other.

“Gimme Resurrection,” co-written and produced by Eric Hutchinson, is the first tune of the album and also the first single to be released before the official album launch. It is a much talked about, upbeat song with a melody that will immediately steal one’s attention. “Ordinary Dude” sounds like it is inspired by the songwriting style of Amy Winehouse but with more of a modern twist. One can’t help but love the tune “Not Mine.” Not just because of its catchy rhythmic hook backed by the 1990s style rock riff, but it will instantly remind listeners of the famous Nickelback song you kept singing for years. “Power Of Love” starts with a synth patch identical to the beginning of “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock and is well placed, after seven songs of the album.

Anya has composed excellent harmonies, used as the backbone for the catchy melodies and even though they are similar to most indie-pop songs, analyzing the tunes would fetch surprising results. Music geeks who have learned the concepts of Jazz modal interchange chords but never understood where to use them would be elated to hear how a IV minor chord has been used in the chorus of “Snowflake,” making it sound so fresh. She has intelligently placed some non-diatonic and dissonant chords in places where most songwriters would use the usual harmonies used in pop songs, making this album portray a different style of indie-pop genre, which needs to be explored more by artists. Even though its hard to turn the attention away from the lovely pop hooks, listeners won’t be disappointed when listening to the harmonies in almost all the songs on this record.

Overall, a well composed record by the hands of an expert. Simple yet well articulated acoustic and electric guitar parts have acted as a catalyst for magnifying the beauty of this album. Paper Plane surely has the potential to grab headlines and make it to the top charts.