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Reviews for "Little Black Dress & Other Stories":
««« "clever...and the music is consistently strong to boot."
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- Ken Barnes, USA Today
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"affecting, pop-smart tunes" - Chris Morris, Billboard
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"An ultra-cool, ultra-hip album that is one of the best new releases I've heard in a long time. Check it out." --  Ed Kociela, Utah Daily News
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««««« "well deserves my five stars top rating!"
-- Hugues Orsetti, CROSSROADS (France)
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"The music is all in Celsi's writing, which is direct, killing...needing no ornamentation..."-- Greil Marcus, Real Life Rock Top Ten
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"Little Black Dress & Other Stories is a hell of an impressive debut,
and Anny Celsi is a talent to watch."
 
Michael Toland -- highbias.com
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"There isn't a weak track in the set, which is no small achievement."
-- Adrian Zupp, HARP
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"Hit material folk pop" -Tom “Tearaway” Schulte – Outsight Communications
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“A musical journey in the best sense, "Little Black Dress" unfolds like a tightly written script. – Mark Spangler, The Oregonian
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"...a marvelously cool, hip, subtle singer and songwriter...equally convincing with a Dusty Springfield/Jackie DeShannon style ballad as a Peggy Lee-ish torch song...."  -- John Conquest, 3rd Coast Music

"Overall, a nice collection from the indie side of the street with enough twists to keep listeners interested." -- Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine
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"One of the most literate, appealing albums of 2003...Celsi has produced
a superlative set of song novellas that demand you hit the repeat button." 

-- Paul Andersen, San Gabriel Valley Papers

"In the classic singer-songwriter mode, Anny’s sunny/dark folky-rock took me to a “Raymond Chandler-esqe” Los Angeles of hard lessons learned and the high cost of love. Dig it! It’s black and white 50’s film-noir in color!" Jonny DuFresne, Two Louies
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"Anny Celsi possesses such a radiantly reassuring voice that it almost doesn’t matter what she’s singing about..."  -- Falling James, LA Weekly
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"Anny Celsi has proved the Lee Hazlewood style of pop mining in the service of a pulp fiction song cycle is alive and thriving." -- Eric Olsen, Blogcritics.com
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“It's not often that listening to a record evokes the same buzz of satisfaction that one gets upon finishing a particularly ripping book. Seldom does an album sustain an arc of characters and situations that is consistently surprising, amusing and touching. "Little Black Dress and Other Stories" is all this and more… whether you're following her written words or bouncing a foot to the surplus of winning melodies, "Little Black Dress" is a perfect fit.”

– John Chandler, Portland Tribune
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"...a beatnik-cool performer who veers from poppy, bouncy beats to jazzy piano bar riffs and sexy come-ons... she’s sensitive but no wimp and a fellow traveler to Aimee Mann and Sheryl Crow.  The “pop-noir” soundtrack of her solo debut, “Little Black Dress,” wears a veneer of L.A. Confidential style." -- Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press
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"Think of Victoria Williams, Aimee Mann, Suzanne Vega and Sheryl Crow mixed together and you begin to get the picture...Anny is pretty much their equal as a songwriter."
-- S.P. Clarke, Two Louies
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“When she starts to sing she's got something to say, and she says it in this way designed to separate the boys from the men, if you know what I mean and I think you do.”
-- Ben Varkentine, Ink19.com
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"With a hard-boiled writer’s sense of economy, Anny Celsi pulls you into the disturbing scenarios of thwarted romance, peopled by the usual suspects with fickle hearts and fatal flaws..."
-- Larry O.Dean, Amplifier
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“We played "Empty Hangers," and I tell ya, if the rest of her record's as good as that one track, then we've got another Brand New Fave here...”  (Dana & Carl, THIS IS ROCK N' ROLL RADIO, WXXE, Syracuse, NY)

"I don't understand much of what is going on in these 13 songs, but I think I like it...Her voice is staggeringly lovely, the songs are all very well put together and feature attractive mixes and colors that you can't get out of your head and whether I understood anything going on here or not, I certainly end up heartily recommending this odd but lovely little disc."
-- P. Kellach Waddle, FolkWax
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"When her genre skimming peaks, it’s sharp and rewarding. “Summer Fling,”  equal parts Motown and Bachrach, is breezy, bouncy and flitting with Audrey Hepburn abandon. “Wicked Little Heart” is swift and sexy, a track that could easily appear on a Julee Cruise record...As the album sketches out gone wrong women and situations, her lyrical knack for snagging human nature is astounding..."
-- Terry Sawyer, indieworkshop.com
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"Anny Celsi has a knack for selecting telling symbols that illuminate the interior lives of characters inhabiting her songs...her original material matches smart, insightful lyrics with a hugely singable melody...[using] seemingly mundane objects to dissect relationship politics with sometimes acidic precision."
-- Bliss, Pasadena Weekly
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"Doesn't the title alone stir you up?  Well, she delivers, combining crackerjack lyrics and songwriting with attitude and an alt-country feel that 's hard to shake."
-- John Koenig, Discoveries

"...a fine debut album of folk pop and songs about cheap booze, hopeful losers, femme fatales and female empowerment with a soft but slightly burred voice somewhere between Aimee Mann, Chrissie Hynde and Sheryl Crow" -- Mike Davies, NetRhythms.com
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"Her songs with wild and sensitive make us feel the LA breeze...it will make you feel like turning over the toy-box. Full of variety, though unified....just like a kaleidoscope." -- Shuichi Iwami
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"Ihr Debütalbum unter eigenem Namen ist ein gelungenes Werk mit Konzept, Charakter, Stil und Klasse – eine perfekte Einheit vom pulp-style Cover über die 60er Jahre Artwork bis zu den mehrdeutigen Texten und der letzten (Twang-) Note...
Anny Celsi ist definitiv anders – im spannendsten Sinn des Wortes!"
-- Glitterhouse.com
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"De vanuit Los Angeles opererende zingende liedjesschrijfster Anny Celsi is met “Little Black Dress & Other Stories” niet echt aan haar proefstuk toe, maar het heeft er pas nu eindelijk alle aanschijn van dat een doorbraak nakende is." -- ctrl.alt.country (Belgium)
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"Met dat laatste zal het wel goed komen trouwens want Anny Celsi heeft talent, dat mag duidelijk zijn." -- Real Roots Cafe (The Netherlands)
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For reviews of the Annyland CD, "She Walks In," click here