more challenging to make songs that are pop songs, to make happy songs, and that's why I like to do it. I really like to make quite hopeful, happy music with a little bit of melancholy in it, with a little spice of melancholy." Anniemal focuses on heavily layered beats, with a strong 1980s influence. Annie was influenced by 1980s dance-pop, and on "No Easy Love", she includes a sample of Shakatak's 1982 song "Easier Said Than Done". Unlike many of her contemporaries, Annie avoids using an ironic or kitschy in her take on 1980s music. The songs' styles span genres including bubblegum pop, electro, disco, R&B, dance-pop, and rock. Annie's DJing experiences taught her about sound and production and affected her music. She stated that she wanted to make a pop album that would not quickly become dated, "an album that you could listen to in five years and it wouldn't sound terrible." Annie considered excluding "Greatest Hit" from Anniemal to achieve this but ultimately included it because she felt it did not sound as if it were five years old. Critical reception Anniemal received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork referred to the songs as a "dozen slices of stylish, sophisticated electro-pop, crisp tracks that move between the fizzy and the woozy, all anchored by Annie's breathy (sometimes almost muted) vocals." The site's endorsement was uncommon during a period when sites covering independent music were often dismissive of pop acts. In his review for AllMusic, Andy Kellman described Anniemal as "cunning" but also "deeply affecting". Dylan Hicks' review for The Village Voice stated that the blogosphere and British music press overrated Anniemal but that "an overrated good record is still a good record". Jody Rosen wrote for The New York Times that the album "is a true album, strong from top to bottom" and that "there is charm in [Annie's] deadpan delivery, and her songwriting is full of the flair for melody for which Scandinavian pop is famous." Rosen also contributed a review to Slate, where she noted that "other singers have made whole careers out of singles less winning than 'Chewing Gum,' but [Anniemal] includes several other superb songs". Kitty Empire's review in The