Annie stepped back into the limelight on June 19th with her single American Cars, a prelude to her forthcoming album, the opulent and extraordinary Dark Hearts. On Dark Hearts, released October 16th Annie collaborates with Swedish producer Stefan Storm, the architect of synth outfit Sounds Of Arrows. The album’s debut single American Cars is the soundtrack to blacked out skylines, abandoned downtown city districts and empty highways.   Annie says it was partly inspired by the David Cronenberg film Crash.   Hitting the zeitgeist on the first wave of filesharing, Annie’s debut single Greatest Hit was a global underground smash. Her debut album ‘Anniemal’ on London’s hip 679 Recordings featured the   Royksopp-produced Heartbeat and Chewing Gum and her first single with Richard X.  Her move to a major label in 2007 didn’t work out as planned and the defiantly titled Don’t Stop was eventually released on Oslo indie Smalltown Supersound.  “I didn’t do big pop stuff but I wasn’t underground either,” she reflects. “I was somewhere in the middle. Back then it was a challenge because labels couldn’t categorise me.”  In the last few years she’s embraced that independence with a string of EPs like The A&R EP and Endless Vacation, and one-off singles such as 2014’s Lil Lous-inspired, Putin-baiting Russian Kiss.