Anika’s Lovely Goth Pop, Fourteen Years On

Everybody listen up because this is a special occasion: fourteen years ago this week, the English-German singer Anika began building a dark nightclub that would only operate hours past closing time and never see sunrise. I mean this figuratively. On September 13, 2010, Anika released her debut single, a cover of Yoko Ono’s “Yang Yang,” which would lead her self-titled debut. It’s this album, Anika, and the EP that followed it that I’m here to talk about. 

If Anika’s singing reminds you of anybody, it’s probably Nico. But where Nico’s husky croon felt reflective and inward-facing, Anika’s vocals are flat and uncompromising. She comes through muffled and far away, and yet her voice is the main attraction; it solidifies the character of the music. The words she sings are, for the most part, not hers; most of them are covers of classic pop and soul singles.

Produced by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, the music is gothic and sparse. Jumpy bass lines provide a melody, which is supplemented by an assortment of whiny sawing synths and feedback noises. “No One’s There,” one of the album’s few original songs, is as barebones as a post-punk track can get, and yet the vibe it conjures up is so smoke-thick you can almost see it. “Yang Yang” lays wailing sirens atop a groovy bass and comes out sounding nothing like the Yoko Ono original at all. The country melody of “End of the World” only makes it more unsettling. 

Anika’s music is one of those cases where the old debate of style versus substance feels silly and obsolete because, here, style is substance. And this is a fact that the singer herself seems markedly aware of. You can tell by the songs she chooses to cover: “End of the World,” “I Go to Sleep,” and “Love Buzz”; these are pop classics that are notable because they have already been covered time and time again. When a song is melodically and lyrically identical to several previous versions, it’s the style that sticks out. Anika and the subsequent EP of the same name are aesthetic exhibitions, and the removed cold-bloodedness with which Anika sings lyrics she hasn’t written only contributes to the vibe. 

If you love gothic music or anything spooky and unique, don’t miss out on Anika’s first few releases. They’re killer.