Annie, one of the defining "big on the internet" pop stars of the noughties, was dropped from her label, Island Records, earlier this year. For a legion of fans eagerly awaiting her second album Don't Stop this was pretty frustrating, but now she's popped up and assured us that the album will see the light of day. She's not sure when. Or how.

As The Guardian reports, Annie has asserted that she owns the masters to her recordings, so can pretty much do what she likes with them. She hints that she may release them on her own label which, along with the news that she's building her own studio in Berlin, suggests she's had quite enough of being dicked around by "The Man", thank you very much.

You have to wonder, though. By the time Annie manages to put out her second album, will the current trend for female-fronted, shinily-produced, electro-tinged pop have passed? This year we're going to be drowning in the stuff, with Lady Ga-Ga, Ladyhawke, Marina And The Diamonds, Little Boots and the breathy La Roux poised to assume the role in the pop landscape many had hoped was reserved for Annie.

The good news is that Annie has no qualms about working her tail off, and has made no secret of that fact that she's not happy being just "an internet pop star". As she remarked in an interview earlier this year:

"Actually, I find it really annoying if, for example, I take a cab and they notice I have all my instruments around me, and they say, 'Ah, so you do music?' And I say, 'Yeah, I'm Annie!' but then they're just like, 'I've never heard of you.'"

Refreshingly honest, no?

Now, if I may, I'm going to go off on a slight conspiracy-theory tangent which will doubtless make me sound like an unhinged lunatic. My theory is that Annie may actually have released some music last year under another moniker.

Take a listen, please, to this song called "Starlighter" by a supposedly French act named Jupiter. Don't worry if you haven't heard of Jupiter, this little ditty is quite magnif:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Hmmm. That voice sounds raaather famil, does it not? It couldn't be, could it? Nooo. Surely not. Just because a doubtless frustrated Annie found herself stranded in limbo due to record company indifference for most of 2008... Hmmmmmmmmm. HMMMM!

Let's listen to another Jupiter number. This is called "CHiP" and is a remix by a person called Shook:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Well, I don't know. I mean Annie is bound to have had a considerable influence on any number of aspirant pop chanteuses across Europe over the past few years. But if my ears are behaving themselves, Jupiter's young lady sounds like Annie to a degree which makes them all but interchangeable.

If one does a little bit more research on Jupiter one discovers a bio that leans decidedly towards the mythical, which will do nothing to dampen rumours like the one I am scurrilously trying to start here today.

Well, it looks like we'll only have to wait another month or so to find out the truth, for Jupiter are slated to appear in Oslo and Paris in February (check their MySpace for dates and info). If you're going to be in either of those cities on the relevant dates, nip along and have a peep for us, will you?

Jupiter's MySpace

Annie's MySpace

Why people went nuts about Annie in the first place