Anna Baldree bravely places her faint heart in a precarious position, preparing herself to play the role of the ‘Final Girl’ in her latest release.
The Chattanooga-based songstress Anna Baldree is making her first steps now that she’s entered the music scene. From the moment she picked up a guitar at age fifteen to the day she realized she wanted to dedicate herself to making music, Anna has been developing an intense passion that’s led her to the present day. After going through many phases, she has found a home in more ethereal and catchy melodies and melancholy-tinted lyrics.
Beginning her pursuit of music in 2020 while stuck quarantining at home, Baldree is an undiscovered rookie with much potential who will hopefully soon break into the scene and steal away people’s attention like a phantom thief. She’s drawn influences from artists such as Mazzy Star, The Cranberries, Radiohead, The 1975, Phoebe Bridgers, and Soccer Mommy.
Barely two months after her debut with the anthemic indie pop ‘Try Again’, Anna Baldree is back with her second single. Breaking away from the up-tempo indie pop/rock sound of her previous single, Final Girl is a soft guitar-driven track. Both singles will be featured in her upcoming debut album, set to release sometime this year.
The track was written by Anna Baldree, produced and recorded by Ivan Garcia, and mixed and mastered by Daniel Nelson, (all) in La Blanca Studio.
Playing with the horror trope of the “final girl”, a concept that was born and boomed during the golden era of slasher movies, Baldree makes references to the idea of the woman determined enough to survive it all, and wears her skin to bear the struggles and pain of loving someone who won’t love her back. The idea was born out of a dream she had, featuring her back-then crush as a serial killer and her as a victim.
Conceptually, the song is a masterpiece, and Baldree, the great mind behind the art that decided to unite the niche but beloved Sad Indie Girl and Final Girl by using their common characteristics as a meeting point; two persevering souls who walk towards doom with the hope of living through and exiting the tunnel. Lyrically, every metaphor is on point to an unbelievable degree… At the same time, it is also painfully realistic, highlighting the emotional journey the artist makes to hell and back while battling the loss of a love that has never truly been there.
With soft harmonization, an acoustic guitar, and a dreamy atmosphere, the track feels like the song equivalent of being naked alone. It is bare yet complex, beautiful yet hard to look at because phasing the truth instead of looking at things with rose-tinted glasses has never been easy. Baldree slowly eases the tough topic of knowingly setting oneself up for disappointment via her delicate and mellow vocals, and at times it is easy to get lost in her voice and accompanying vocals, making everything feel like a peaceful dream instead of the nightmare she’s narrating.
Final Girl is, essentially, the aftermath of a horrible romantic experience. Like dust settling after a motorcycle aggressively takes off, Baldree and the listener are left behind with a slowly sinking feeling of absence; the missing presence of the object of your affections, or more accurately, the emptiness of fantasy that vanished away and left with the wind.
The horror of realizing we’ve once again fallen in love with our own imagination is something most young women — if not young adults in general — have gone through. The time spent daydreaming never actually had a pause, and in the end, we’re left staring at the stranger we had been thinking about for days on end and the strangers we ourselves have become. After this, the only thing that’s left is to slowly pick up the fallen pieces of our hearts, and throw away the broken parts that made up the idealization we once had.
Anna Baldree’s single seems to be a playful albeit sad take on a horror trope, but once the first impression has passed, it is clear that Final Girl seems to focus more on the romance genre and the lasting effect it has left on women who grew up dreaming of their prince charming, their fated one. Faced with the disaster yet not backing down, this bittersweet romantic tragedy pierces through the hearts of those who have felt the same way, before slowly helping it heal again.
Baldree’s sophomore song is an anti-ballad ballad that resonates within the listener’s mind as strongly as the guitar and vocals do in the track. Less than half a year into her music career, the seemingly old soul inside her music feels reminiscent of Lorde and Hozier, which is hopefully a good sign of what’s to come for the rest of her journey.
If you enjoyed Anna Baldree’s music and would like to stay updated, be sure to check out her official website. For social media you can follow her Instagram account. To listen to her music, you can head over to her Spotify profile.
You can also support the artist by streaming and sharing her music, which can be found in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, Female Rising Stars, and 12 New Songs This Week.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you should subscribe to Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists we’ve talked about!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator https://www.musosoup.com/sustainable-curator
In the garden known as the music industry, Eden strives to help small artists bloom and build a bigger audience. Longtime lover of dream pop, R&B, and sentimental music. (Icon drawn by vickisigh on instagram.)