Early Regina Spektor records were the first to expose me to female-folk music with a level of cynicism/bitterness only matched by that of Holden Caulfield. On one record, Baobabs, sung about raising children in the city, and the impossibility of it because they “Know about buyin’ shit/and they know about sex; and they know about investment bankin’ and also about brokerage firms; and they know about the numbers and they know about the words…” and so on and so forth. This seemed edgy when I first heard it, as most would expect female artists to sing about love…and happy things. Regina Spektor decided to sing about the working class, and the hopelessness of our future through the mindless repetition of life. Again, edgy.
St. Vincent, the moniker of the ever-so-lovely Annie Clark, an Indie artist signed to 4AD, sings about different things. What things you ask? Well, how about, “We’re sleeping underneath the bed to scare the monsters out. With our dear Daddy’s Smith and Wesson, we’ve got to teach them all a lesson.” These lyrics come from “The Bed”, a song from her latest May release, Actor. If that lovely imagery of a child holding her father’s gun to fight the metaphorical demons under the bed wasn’t enough, continues with, “Don’t move. Don’t Scream, or we will have to shoot. Stop, right where you stand. We need a chalk outline if you can; put your hands where we can see them please.” Most music reviews that I have read have the nasty and poor habit of comparing two artists at nausea, (See reviews of Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights for ex.) so let me just say this: If Regina Spektor’s shock is similar to that of the short story “The Lottery”, St. Vincent is Lolita.
Actor begins with a song called “The Strangers”, and what a beautiful song it is. Here, Clark details her family as the aforementioned “Strangers”, while incorporating a doo-wop-themed hook of “Paint the black hole blacker.” This song really let me get a feel for Clark’s style. She loves to sound theatrical, and she risks dipping herself into the pool of pretentiousness by having her music sound more similar to that of a Broadway musical than a regular album; and god bless her for it, because it sounds terrific. “The Strangers” continues with its alienation with the lyric, “What do I share? What do I keep? From all the strangers who sleep where I sleep?” Following this is a short burst of lovely distorted instrumentation, which subsides as Clark returns to her softly delivered lyrics to close the song out, using a melody similar to that of the one the song begins with.
The second track on the album is the Morrissey-titled “Save Me from What I Want”. This is probably the most structured song on Actor, as Clark continues with her wit and Broadway sound, but choosing a more simple organization of verse, chorus, verse, chorus. The highlight of this song for me was this lovely gem: “But I’m a wife in watercolors; I can wash away.” The song continues by repeating its title in a very nice melody that combines with the introduction of new strings toward the end and a nice little drum beat. Continuing her musical theme, Clark hits you over the head repeatedly with ”Black Rainbow” Here, her glorious distortion returns to erupt in a beautiful mess during the final minute that sounds as sinister as it does classical. As the orchestration rises to its absolute peak, it abruptly ends.
Worth mentioning if only for its title alone is, “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood”. Clark’s vocals sound great on this track, and she seems to have saved every hook in her mind for it, which from the lyrics, sounds like a ghost speaking to her former family: “Tell my sister that I miss her/Tell my brother that it gets much easier. All of my old friends aren’t so friendly; and all of my old haunts are now haunting me.” Well, that or a rather eleborate metaphor for domestic abuse.
Moving forward, Actor takes a bit of a slump with the filler track, “Marrow”. Clark tries to do too much here; even when you consider the lack of structure that most of her songs seem to benefit from, this is just ridiculous. “Marrow” cannot decide if it is her dance single; another soft-sung self-reflection; or whatever the fuck the break that occurs at 2:12 is. One filler out of nothing but great songs so far did not affect me too much. Returning to form, “The Party” features a great layer of harmonies and band-style-drum-rolls. Clark sings, “How did we get here? With creaks in these chairs, oh there are not enough hands to point all the fingers; but I sit, transfixed by a hole in your t-shirt. I said much too much in the trying to speak up.” On “The Party”, she ditches the distorted strings for clean acoustics and soft piano, and her voice carries the rest of the
story.
Annie Clark offers something unique with her sophomore effort. The theater-musical sound combined with her general wit and intelligence makes for a terrific listen. I actually found it quite hard to believe that this was a record that came out only two months ago. For anyone who enjoys the sample songs provided, it is a must purchase.
Bruce's Score: 10/10
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