When you first get noticed for performing deeply personal songs on your guitar on TikTok during a pandemic, there isn’t a clear next step.
This is what Annie DiRusso has been facing since she broke out at the age of 21 in 2021 with singles like “Coming Soon” and “Nine Months.” Since then, she’s put out an EP and toured extensively — supporting artists like HAIM and beabadoobee — but only now is DiRusso releasing her first full length. Why did it take so long? From the sound of it — both musically and in the album’s title Super Pedestrian — it’s because DiRusso chose to walk, not run.
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It’s the right move, as Super Pedestrian is a very solid debut that finds DiRusso stepping out from her intimate bedroom indie rock to explore all of the paths currently laid out in front of her, without losing her specific POV. Many of her earlier songs found DiRusso detailing her pain, but from a place that felt like she was still in the middle of it, even blaming herself. Now she has the clarity of hindsight, expressing a wide breadth of emotions with confidence, allowing DiRusso to simply be who she is, no doubts or fucks given. Or as DiRusso sings on “Legs,” in a moment that exemplifies this perspective, “I don’t give a shit / If we fuck or we date.”
That confidence extends to DiRusso’s willingness to fully embrace a bigger, rocking sound with producer Caleb Wright (Samia, Hippo Campus). The hooks on early singles “Legs” and “Back in Town” are undeniable. “Good Ass Movie” is driving pop-punk, full of hilarious burns on a unfulfilling ex like, “You think writing about sex is cheap / Well you know what i think’s cheap? / Saying you’re a writer /And not writing anything.” (And possibly the first pop culture nostalgia for the film Get Smart, which made this critic suddenly feel old.) Even a jokey song like “Derek Jeter”—where the famed Yankee’s name is shouted over and over as DiRusso’s dad shares his love for the player—plays more like a welcome palate cleanser than a throwaway.
DiRusso balances this fun, though. She walks into the darkness—and her fuzzy guitar follows—on songs like “Hungry,” a powerful reclamation of a sexual assault, and the self-aware self-destruction anthem “I Am The Deer.” Across all tracks, there’s a strong contrast of DiRusso’s vulnerable, angelic voice and her angry, fuming guitars, complicating the infectious fun that’s also ever-present. It’s also sexually frank in a way that captures the real but often unspoken compromises many of us make in our 20-something romances, be they for one night or longer.
If anything, Super Pedestrian’s stylistic explorations sometimes give it a feel of being a grab bag of influences. Like “Wearing Pants Again” sounds like the song’s co-writer/singer (and DiRusso’s friend) Ruston Kelly’s indie-rock-by-way-of-Nashville, “Wet” could easily slide into a MUNA setlist, and the melodic introspection of Boygenius or pop-with-an-edge of Soccer Mommy sneak in throughout.
Tying it all together, though, are DiRusso’s always assured lyrics. Her POV is distinctly her own and acknowledging the artists who inspire her fits with the album’s larger theme of proudly owning what has made you. By Super Pedestrian’s last song, “It’s Good To Be Hot In The Summer,” DiRusso is declaring her intent to march straight into what makes her uncomfortable, leaving me eager to see where she walks to next.
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