Annabella Lwin Finally Escapes ‘Candy’ Land

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think this was Bow Wow Wow?” Annabella Lwin was only teasing her Key Club audience Thursday, as most seemed aware that the former singer for the early ‘80s band didn’t intend to revisit the old days. At least no one screamed for the group’s biggest song, a percussive New Wave take on the Strangeloves’ ‘60s hit “I Want Candy.”

Fronting a quartet dubbed Annabella Lwin’s Tang (as in “thang,” as in “thing”), the colorfully dressed U.K. resident did offer the tune as an encore. But the point of her freewheeling 45-minute set, which featured new songs from a forthcoming solo album, was to assert herself as an artist finally getting to make music on her own terms.

She was only 16 when she became an early MTV star, thanks to the “Candy” video featuring a Mohawk-wearing Lwin in a wet T-shirt, singing on the beach. Her previous solo release, in 1986, featured no original material. Neither was there creative satisfaction in a brief 1997 Bow Wow Wow reunion concert tour and subsequent live album.

Although her new material carried positive messages about the deceptive allure of fame and a need for inner peace, reflecting her newfound Buddhist beliefs, the songs lacked distinctive hooks. The music grooved agreeably but was undistinguished, bearing a whiff of ‘80s dance-pop amid the blend of funky guitar, psychedelic Indian-style riffs, electronica textures and folky bits apparently influenced by such modern rock acts as Garbage. Still, Lwin fairly burst with playful energy, as if it was deeply satisfying, indeed, to be doing her own thing at last.