Anya Marina’s story is inspiring to any young aspiring artist, male or female alike, but mostly female. It was interesting because on the cab ride there the seemingly music savy cabbie was explaining how he liked Anya Marina’s single they played on the radio, but he would never buy her album. He said that her sound was a “dime a dozen.”  The cabbie was supporting my theory that it is much more difficult to make it as a female musician than male, because most female musicians do all end up sounding way too similar. Having said that, there is still potential for female musicians to be amazing. Anya Marina seems to have nailed it, capturing this generation’s quirky, sensitive, fun loving, yet not too serious sound. She has found a way to separate herself from the masses, with the release of her second album, The Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II. It is a fresh, unique, lovely little album. Upon first listen it seems light & airy, but with each additional listen it seems like it could continue to have legs for years to come. While you can tell that her roots are in the basic singer/songwriter genre, the album has a strong dance influence that captures the essence of “hipster” generation while also poking fun at it. Many have attributed the more dance-like quality of her album to Brian Karscig of Louis XIV who helped produce the album.

I was interested to see Anya for the first time, and wondered how the album would translate to a live show. The song “After Party at Jimmy’s” uses a lot of recording tricks & techniques (and possibly kazoos) to capture the fun & mocking sound. Anya herself has a very “cool” personal style, with blond bangs, a mini dress, and tights with huge holes in them. Her voice borders on baby-ish, but you can tell she is a trained singer, and that plus the tonality of her vocals give her a very unique sound. The show was a sold out, Friday night show, and there were FM 94/9 banners all around, but for some reason I found it underwhelming. Anya sang and played guitar with her all male quartet, and for some reason I thought it was going to be more of a big homecoming type show for San Diego’s latest sensation. I was happy to hear my favorites, such as the Leonard Cohan-esque “All the Same to Me,” still, it felt like something was missing. Everyone was enjoying it, but nobody was really rocking out or dancing. Regardless, it was a good live show, a good second album, and definitely worth checking out.