Anna Calvi – ‘Is This All There Is?’ album review: Cafefully considered collaboration
A collaboration in the modern day has almost been used as a streaming cheat code – a way for artists to baselessly double their listenership in the hope it might make a dent in this vast digital ocean. But amid that, with her EP Is This All There Is? Anna Calvi has reminded us of the genuine artistic merit that comes from buddying up with your peers.
The Skinny: Iggy Pop is a pretty punchy name to kick off proceedings with. His distinct voice ought to be approached with extreme caution, offering him an arrangement that perfectly suits it. But on ‘God’s Lonely Man’ Calvi has done just that, with an unrelenting and ominous rhythm that straddles groove and punk.
As he ushers in the vocals, it feels as though she has placed the punk icon on a pedestal, worshipping his rock legacy. But with a confident swagger, she does away with that entire idea and enters into the vocal booth herself, offsetting his baritone with a whistling falsetto that haunts the entire soundscape of this song.
That opening track is a collaboration at its very finest and sets out a furious stall for the rest of the EP to follow. But the credits on each song show a contrast of styles that begs the question of just how Calvi might pull this off. While Perfume Genius’s whisper marks quite the sonic change from Iggy, ‘I See A Darkness’ continues to haunt its listener like the previous track and plunges you further into this transcendent journey.
The tracklisting has clearly been poured over by Calvi, for the follow-up cover of Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ with Laurie Anderson is the EP’s most off-beat performance. It takes the listener to the very depths of this album’s existential ideas, with musings about simply not knowing what to do, feel inherently profound after you’ve been on a swirling spiral into darkness on the previous two tracks.
It all makes way for a fitting anthem in the EP’s title track closer, which recruits an artist who feels spiritually aligned with Calvi, Matt Berninger. It’s a fitting modern-day duet, laid on top of an industrial wasteland that’s hiding heavy pockets of emotion in its wasteland.
Standout Track: ‘Is This All There Is?’
The Verdict: This isn’t just a happy-go-lucky exercise in cultural networking, designed to pump up the streaming metrics of artists involved. This is Calvi’s world, carefully laid out and extending invites to only those artists befitting of its ethos, and through her thorough gatekeeping of such, she has made an EP that perfectly embodies collaboration.
Release Date: March 20th, 2025 | Producer: Nick Launay | Label: Domino
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