Today was my first day playing Ultimate this year and, well, I’m not as young as I used to be, but it was fun. Music is also fun so having recovered physically (following a two-hour nap) I’m ready to recover spiritually with one of the best records of 2025.
Disc 1919 is…Tether
Artist: Annahstasia
Year of Release: 2025
What’s up with the Cover? Annahstasia channels early Prince with this sultry and shirtless situation.
How I Came To Know It: The boring way – I read a review, checked it out and liked it.
How It Stacks Up: This is Annahstasia’s first and so far only LP and (not coincidentally) the only one I have. All of which is to say that there will be no stacking up.
Ratings: 4 stars
Some folk music is full of jump and jangle and some folk music is about deep thoughts and deeper feelings. Annahstasia’s “Tether” is the second variety, so if you decide to dive into the submerged caverns of her mind, be warned that you’ll likely emerge contemplative and maybe even a little sad.
If I’m going to be subjected to a wallow, I like it to be a good one and “Tether” is a worthy journey. Annahstasia writes with a simple and very subtle melodic style, saturated with rounded notes and layers of sound that make you feel like you’re floating underwater.
Against this backdrop her vocals emerge, breaking the surface tension of the mix with a layered and vibrant sound.
Her voice is low and breathy but full of power, leaving you to wonder how she doesn’t run out of oomph halfway through the bar (she never does). The delivery is husky and full of emotion that is overwrought, but in a well-planned and executed way. These songs could easily turn to maudlin, but because of the strength of her voice that never happens.
I am a big fan of Grace Cummings, and Annahstasia has a similar mix of otherworldly keen and ghostly whisper. In place of the tortured warble that Cummings employs, Annahstasia opts for a more direct lounge quality. She doesn’t equal Cummings’ brilliance, but that is a very high mountain to climb, with no shame in coming second.
The record opens with “Be Kind” which is indicative of the record. It is filled with heavily emotional moments, often pleading with both lover and listener for openness, understanding and above all, kindness.
From here we just dive lower. Light touches of piano, string and the brush-strum of guitar all serve to sink you deeper into the headspace where Annahstasia is waiting for you.
There are places where the musical choices edged a bit too close to jazz flourishes for my tastes, but they always pull away at just the right time. It is more of a deliberate brush with one or two arcane and unexpected notes that pinch you enough to bring you out of deep reverie, but not so hard to wake you from the spell.
On “Overflow” Annahstasia forgoes her whisper fur a full-throated vocal show-off moment. Consider me impressed as her tone warbles and bellows its way through the album’s most triumphant composition.
Even though “Overflow” is a celebration of refilling our cup, Annahstasia can’t resist a twist of saturated poetry that pushes you to a place of uncertainty. Case in point, these fine lines:
“Everybody wants to know
The child prodigy
But who's saving space
For the goldfish in her cage?”
She loses me a bit after this with the spoken word piece “All Is. Will Be. As It Was.” This bit has good poetry and a recurring use of alliteration that would make a Viking skald proud, but the work would be better without the guitar and piano flourishes that take it from basement beat poet joy and into lounge.
Fortunately, things immediately recover with the record’s best song, “Silk and Velvet”. Starting with “lately I’ve been tired/with all this running around” you sigh in relief and welcome the coming sink back into Annahstasia’s unique blend of the wise and the unsettled. Best line, the recurring:
“Maybe I'm an analyst, an antisocial bitch
Who sells her dreams for money
To buy hеr silk and velvet”
I love when a great poet won’t let themselves off their own hook, and here Annahstasia explores the very motives that bring her to create. Personally, I think she’s being way too hard on herself. Yes, all that creativity comes with doubt, but rarely was doubt expressed with such grace and beauty as it is on “Tether”. Quite simply, one of 2025’s best records.
Best tracks: Be Kind, Villain, Silk and Velvet, Overflow, Believer
