Anne Clark (born 14 May 1960, Croydon, London, England) is an English poet and songwriter. Her first recording was The Sitting Room in 1982, and she has released over a dozen albums since then. Her experimental music occupies a region bounded roughly by electronic, dance (techno applies on occasion) and possibly avant-garde genres, with varying hard as well as romantic and orchestral styles. Clark is mainly a spoken word artist, but she also plays piano and occasionally accompanies herself, with piano and voice mixing in a somewhat atypical New Wave style. Many of her lyrics deal critically with the imperfections of humanity, everyday life, and politics. Especially in her early works she has created a gloomy, melancholy kind of atmosphere bordering on weltschmerz.
Recognized in America for the 1987 modern rock radio curio "Hope Road," Anne Clark's contributions to the alternative genre are often ignored; or perhaps she's too obscure to receive the proper credit. Clark made her debut in 1982 with the album The Sitting Room. A poetic songwriter and gifted pianist, Clark gained a devout legion of fans during the '80s, although commercial success was never within reach. Because of her experiments with both dance music and more elaborate orchestral pieces, Clark won the approval of club denizens and indie purists. However, "Hope Road" was the closest she came to a pop hit. The track is often resurrected by modern rock radio DJs who want to break the monotony of Top 40 new wave on flashback programs, but it doesn't truly reflect Clark's personal, idiosyncratic body of work. In 1994, Beehive released The Best of Anne Clark, a retrospective that, oddly enough, didn't include "Hope Road."
