St. Vincent
by St. Vincent

Annie Clark has delivered her masterpiece. Every song on here is excellent and the album has an overall fun, raunchy, yet beautiful vibe. Very high replay value. Outstanding. Favorite tracks: "Birth In Reverse", "Huey Newton", "Regret", "Psychopath", "Severed Crossed Fingers"

The problem is not so much that there's something inherently flawed about the album, it's just that it's an album that's so... expected... of Annie Clark at this stage. It doesn't really take any wild chances or really delve fully into the darker or stranger or less easily defineable aspects of her persona, and kind of more plays like a monolithic (albeit a slanted monument nonetheless) testament to her supreme talent as a musician and composer than something really made out of impulsive, artistic urgency. All her albums had the crazy constrained and ready to break out (and it was practically foaming at the mouth in Strange Mercy) but this works too much like a well-oiled machine doing it's duty to really unleash Clark's inner demons. Still, undeniably well-crafted, it's a fine introduction to Clark but ultimately feels a bit like a careful step sideways artistically to really feel inspired.

From mickilennial 03/20/2014 05:10 | #106969 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I’m having a hard time with this record, I really am, but at least I don’t hate it at this point in my listening cycle. I’ve always like Annie Clark and her sort of artistic warping of pop music but she kept it at least sounding interesting enough in the vein of her arrangements but all of what remained of her original sound on her first two records has been replaced by something a bit different but still accessible enough. I wager a lot of Annie’s new direction came in when she collaborated with David Byrne and for a lot of people it’s the best she’s ever been, but for me it’s more like something that doesn’t resonate quite as well with me as her second record, Actor. Despite that thought though there’s a lot to appreciate and the record doesn’t skip a beat in being interesting.

It's very early, but currently the placeholder for my favorite album of the year so far

From sszwalbenest 04/19/2014 12:33 | #109551 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

It was refreshing to hear a pop album that was not strangled in endless reverberation; however, once I looked past the production, I really did not see much there. The album was at times very repetitive, and melodically weak. The dissonant effects were what kept it interesting.