Anna B Savage – ‘in/FLUX’ album review: a powerfully intimate exploration of life, love and loss
Anna B Savage possesses a voice that cannot be mistaken. Richly intimate, her vocals, sometimes whispered, sometimes spoken, make for the perfect instrument to carry her boldly vulnerable and emotive lyrics. After releasing her impressive debut album, A Common Turn, in 2021, Savage is back with an even more striking follow-up in|FLUX.
According to the musician, the album revolves around duality, inspired by the complex nature of life and love. Discussing her new material, Savage told The Line of Best Fit that in|FLUX is about “that realisation that you’re allowed to have opinions that oppose each other, and you’re allowed to feel them at the same time. You’re allowed to want to be single but also want to be close to someone. It can all be very confusing, but you are allowed.”
The album opens with ‘The Ghost’, a desperate plea to be set free from the memory of a previous lover, yet one acknowledges the good times spent with him. Moody beats welcome Savage’s deep vocals to become the centrepiece as she sings poignant lines such as, “When a lover speaks to me/I’m scared I’ll say your name” and “Stop haunting me, please/ Just leave me be, please.”
The album takes a quieter turn on ‘I Can Hear The Birds Now’, which bears a folk influence, and the plucky acoustic guitar suits Savage’s voice well. Yet, as the record progresses, in keeping with its title, the musician fluctuates between acoustic instrumentation, layered electronics and subtle strings. The result is a gorgeously textured record that never tires despite relatively minimal soundscapes.
On ‘Pavlov’s Dog’, Savage recreates the sound of a dog panting to emphasise the feeling of intense sexual desire. She explained: “I think pretty much everyone has people in their lives who could have been a thing for them, but it just didn’t work out that way”. Savage’s ability to articulate distinctive emotions and situations makes in/FLUX a compelling and arresting listen, highlighting her strengths as a deeply emphatic writer.
Savage hits her emotional peak on ‘Say My Name’, a gentle, breathy ballad led by a moody acoustic guitar, which slowly builds with quiet saxophone and piano before exploding into a cathartic release. However, Savage moves as close towards ‘indie anthem’ as possible for an artist like her with the title track, which uses danceable beats in its chorus as a background for chants of “I want to be alone”. She also allows herself to show a humourous side as she messes around with her vocal delivery, asserting, “I’m happy on my own”.
Ending the album is ‘The Orange’, which directly references Wendy Cope’s joyously celebratory poem ‘The Gladdest Thing’. The track feels like a summation of in/FLUX as a whole, bittersweetly repeating the lines, “If this is all that there is/ I think I’m gonna be fine”. Savage finds power in independence and loving oneself, and the result is a beautiful track, perhaps the greatest on the album.
Not only does Savage give an incredible vocal performance on the record, but instrumentally, the musician crafts a multi-dimensional and richly textured world that reflects the complexity of her lyrics. With in/FLUX, Savage has firmly cemented herself as a significant up-and-coming voice that deserves to be heard. Having recently featured on Hamish Hawk’s album Angel Numbers, the musician is sure to receive more rightly-earned recognition over the coming year.
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