Annika Jayne
Cats & Coffee Cups (Acoustic Versions)
This album contains acoustic recordings (guitar and voice) of songs Annika Jayne wrote in early 2022 for her subscription service, which she affectionately calls Garden of Creation. But she also included three songs she wrote earlier, Café Of The Lost Dreams (written in 2015), Peace And Quiet (written in 2019) and All I Have Is My Smile (written in 2020). Two more songs that Annika wrote in 2023 found their way onto the album, The Stars You Need To Find and A Voice Like Morning Dew, which is dedicated to Melanie Horsnell ( melaniehorsnell.bandcamp.com ).
The main purpose of all these songs was to spread comfort in difficult times - that was the aim of the songs Annika wrote in 2022 when she herself was desperate for comfort when it seemed there was too much going wrong in the world. She also thought that many people could relate to this feeling and could also use a dose of hope, comfort and faith.
The album title came to her rather spontaneously, as there are a lot of cats and coffee in these songs. There are other comforting things on this record that didn't make it into the title, like wine, books, flowers and records. But as Annika says: "I thought if I had to choose, I'd go with cats and coffee". In Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, one of Annika's favourite books, the taste of coffee is described as peace. Annika hopes that's what you will find when you listen to this album.
Most of the songs on the album are in a minor key - but they are not necessarily unhappy or sad. Some of them have a wonderful, lively, jazzy feel and radiate happiness. And yet, in this happiness, there is a sense of melancholy and longing in most of the songs, something bittersweet. This feeling reflects the melancholy that Annika has been feeling since 2020, when Covid started. And yet the melancholy and longing was coupled with the hope that things would eventually look brighter and return to normal, maybe even a better normal. And yet - just as Covid was coming to an end, a war broke out in the middle of Europe. And by early 2023, the climate crisis had reached a new peak. How do you find comfort in such troubled times? "I try to remember that it is often darkest before the dawn," says Annika. "So while some of the songs are melancholic, I also hope that there is some comfort in the lyrics."
You may see one of these songs in a produced version on a future album, maybe as it is now, maybe revised. Like flowers, they are always growing, and like travellers, they absorb all the impressions over time as they travel. Annika says: "I hope you enjoy them in their raw form as they are now".
Annika would like to thank Brady Jo for mixing and mastering the album and François Maillard for kindly helping her with all her French lyric questions. Annika would also like to thank her Garden of Creation subscribers - this album wouldn't be possible without them. Last but not least, Annika would like to thank her loyal Bandcamp followers for their continued support.
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