With a strong, relatable album to support, Brooke Annibale brings tour home to Pittsburgh

Love and anxiety get equal time on Brooke Annibale's brand-new release, "Better By Now."

Setting her dreamy voice to lush instrumentation, as has become her signature sound, Annibale sounds poised to continue the career momentum that's seen her songs gain national TV and radio time.

"We had a really good, stress-free time making this album, especially coming out of everything we'd been through the past few years, and I think that really shows," Annibale, a Moon High School grad, said. "Not that the writing process is ever stress-free. There is a lot to work through in the process, dealing with that whole spectrum of feelings and emotions."

"Better By Now" bears relatable songs, such as "You Hold Me Together," sparked by the longing for family gatherings she felt during the COVID quarantines and lockdowns.

"That was me reflecting on my generations of family getting together for holidays and events, and how that keeps us all going," Annibale, now a Rhode Island resident, said. "I grew to miss and appreciate that more than ever."

"Social Anxieties" looks both outwardly and inwardly at the root of her shyness in public settings not related to the stage.

"So many songs delve into my personal struggle with social anxiety and how that was impacted all the more by the chaos of the world," Annibale said. "Things aren't always circumstantial. Every line in that song is about a different experience, and how, 'Oh, that really contributed to me feeling a certain way about myself or how I process certain emotions.' I've had a really big growth period learning how to maintain that life balance."

Love ballad "Be Around" finds her wanting to be in someone's company as much as possible, and having the confidence to say so. The chorus arrives with a big emotional swell influenced by Annibale learning to play Oasis' "Champagne Supernova."

The variety and depth in Annibale's music don't lend themself to easy categorization.

Is she indie? Pop? Folk? Singer-songwriter (SiriusXM's The Coffee House channel plays her).

"I never know how to describe it anymore," Annibale said. "Like if I play a folk festival, some people will say it sounds more like pop. But when I say it's a pop record, then there'll be people who say it sounds like folk. So I guess indie-pop-folk-singer-songwriter works, since those are all my influences."

Fans will hear that seamless blend of styles when Annibale's U.S. tour reaches venues like Club Cafe in Pittsburgh on Oct. 23; and the City Winery spots in Philadelphia on Nov. 12 and Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13 along with award-winning Nashville artist Liz Longely.

"Each show has kind of a different configuration," Annibale said.

The Club Cafe show, with $15 admission, will feature Annibale joined by percussionist-guitarist Pat Coyle, whom she's regularly played Pittsburgh area shows with since 2015.

"Club Cafe is such a great place. That's like our home base," Annibale said.

Later in November, Annibale performs in The Netherlands, Belgium and London, where she had been scheduled to make her first appearance in a 2020 tour canceled by COVID.

The pandemic also pushed back her wedding date by a year. She and her wife got married a summer ago.

"It was perfect," Annibale said.

They didn't throw a big album release party when "Better By Now" arrived on streaming sites at midnight Sept. 30.

"That's past my bedtime so I'll probably be in bed," Annibale said in a phone interview 11 hours earlier. "But when I get up, it will be time to celebrate."

She's had plenty to celebrate already, including last May when "Grey's Anatomy" featured one of her songs (the second time ABC's nighttime hospital soap opera has done so.) "The Vampire Diaries," "One Tree Hill" and "Pretty Little Liars" also have aired Annibale songs.

"Hopefully more stuff happens like that with this record," she said. "I always feel it's like winning the lottery, because there's a million songs out there they could choose."

Early in her music career, while still working at a Starbucks, Annibale wrote a song inspired by a bad day she suffered through at her coffee-pouring gig. A few years later when she popped into Starbucks as a customer, Annibale heard the store playing that exact song, "which I thought was really full circle in an amusing way."

Music journalists from Brooklyn Vegan and Flood have praised tracks on "Better By Now," her fourth studio release.

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The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Stereogum, NPR and American Songwriter all have sung Annibale's praises.

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With "Be Around" set to follow the path of the album's title track, receiving airplay on Adult Album Alternative stations like Pittsburgh's 91.3-WYEP, Annibale continues her rise.

Having opened shows for artists like Mt. Joy, Iron & Wine, Lucius and Rufus Wainwright, Annibale invested energy and money on a few YouTube music videos for the new album. The "5 AM" video shows her in the desert sunset of California; the trippy "What If You" video uses special effects visuals to place her sitting atop a plane airborne over the Pittsburgh skyline.

She said, "I figured we don't have the budget to shoot me in a real airplane."

Not yet, anyway.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: With a strong album to support, Brooke Annibale returns to Pittsburgh