Bow down

This is the album where Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, proves herself peerless. The eleven songs on her latest, eponymous project could have been written by no one but herself, displaying the poppy yet wildly unpredictable songwriting of her previous releases, yet pushing her boundaries in every direction all at once, never allowing you a moment to quite pin her down. Each track here is a dichotomous blend of smooth and jagged, with bright, synthesized instrumentation and heavenly vocals being torn straight down the middle by massively distorted guitar work and chaotic drum syncopation. Clark‰’s songwriting exhibits a need for the unpredictable, often leading a song down paths that are drastically different from where we began, as on “Huey Newton‰” where airy, synth driven first half is utterly destroyed by one of the heaviest riffs seen this side of Electric Wizard, or on the opener “Rattlesnake‰” in which funk-synths evolve into a discordant, desperately performed jam which lays the groundwork for everything that‰’s about to come. Compliment the bedlam of her performances with hooks that any pop star would be jealous of and you have St. Vincent‰’s most dynamic, most interesting, and most consistent album yet. The work “eccentric‰” is often thrown around when discussing her work, but this is simply a discredit to her work. When you‰’re done listening to St. Vincent, she‰’s not “eccentric‰” or “quirky‰” or “peculiar‰” as some say, she‰’s downright dangerous.

RIYL: Talking Heads, Dirty Projectors, Janelle Monae, Funkadelic
Recommended Tracks:1, 2, 4, 5, 9