30 January 2024 - 0 Comments

"This is exactly the kind of nerdery I’ve come to both expect and love from Anecdata." - Hamilton Underground Press

Pay what you want to download, or stream from all the usual places - Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / YouTube Music

After the 80's indie/new wave melancholy of Aucklantis, it was time for a change… A Better Plan B is a return to the Anecdata ‘rock’ sound, but bigger and shinier than ever, mixing grunge, glam rock and synthpop with a hint of metal this time around.

The title comes from the lyrics to Amelia Through the Looking Glass, which puts forward the theory the famed aviatrix didn’t crash at all – instead perhaps piloting her Lockheed Model 10 Electra into a rift in spacetime and leaving this cursed planet behind (lyric video here).

The album opens with Dumb Backwards Government, in which a buzzing synth lead floats over a repeated, hypnotic and monolithic guitar riff (lyric video).

The Smoothest Brain turns up the powerpop, mixing melody with chugging guitars and synths that pop in and out of existence.

Andromedean Girl tells the tragic tale of a man who willingly hands the Earth on a plate to alien invaders, while Staging a Coup takes a look at political upheaval closer to home – specifically the early 2022 occupation in Wellington.

The second half of the album dials down the disco for a heavier rock sound, with Neon Riot, Backwater, Nearly a Star, Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror and Holidays in Hawaii living and dying on sharp riffs and heavy guitars.

There’s a brief reprieve with the mutant synthpop of AWOL, before Under the Dirt goes takes a turn for the industrial to close out the record.

A Better Plan B is Anecdata’s take on what rock should sound like in 2024. Well, an attempt at it anyway.

Pay what you want to download, or stream from all the usual places - Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / YouTube Music

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