St. Vincent's Actor A Haunting Ripening
Actor an intellectual jaunt through the vintage and modern.
St. Vincent
Actor
Released on May 05, 2009
Albums are suppose to be a labor of love, but in a fast paced world
where everyone wants instant gratification, it can be hard at times to
find an artist who treats their work with the meticulous and gentle
love it deserves. On her latest release, Actor, Annie Clark aka
St. Vincent delivers a multifaceted whimsical landscape of pop music,
intricately laced with flourish and macabre lyrics, creating an album
that truly exemplifies the art in music.
The album opens with “Strangers,” a dark modern day Disney princess
theme song, the music swirling with haunting harmonies and strings, the
perfect soundtrack for a doomed princess running through the forest.
The music is bubbly and light, yet the lyrics of black holes and
desperation slyly hint at a doomed future. The music on Actor itself teeters on a perfect balance of beautifully scored uplifting pop
music injected with crashes of harsh dissonance. It creates a sonic
picture of the beauty in the details of imperfection or the subtle
scars that maul an otherwise cheerful and perfect picture: the scar on
the face of a beautiful woman, the lipstick stain on the collar of a
crisp white shirt, or any other subtle difference that completely
changes the outcome of what the viewer expects to see or hear.
The other beauty of Actor is the macabre humor that Clark
weaves through her lyrics. One of the most evident examples is the
innocent picture painted of children hiding from monsters in “The Bed,”
only to have the frail naivety of the situation shattered as Clark
points out the fact the children are hiding with a Smith & Weston
gun, waiting to “teach them all a lesson.” Another prime example is the
bombastic track “Marrow” a gristly track dropping simplistic yet
nauseating lines of anatomy “muscles connects to the bone,” after a
flutter of airy strings in the intro, before surging into an industrial
tinged chorus of “H-E-L-P, Help Me, Help Me.” Clark had a similar
playful flair on her previous album Marry Me, yet has elevated her clever wordplay with Actor.
Overall the album showcases an artist who is not only incredibly
intelligent in her lyricism, but careful, calculated, and passionate in
the music she produces. Her talent is most evident in the arrangement
and composition, constructing enchanting yet thought provocative music
that doesn’t shy away from subject matter, yet also doesn’t alienate
the listener. In a world of singles and standout tracks, Actor is a majestic album as a whole, a masterpiece of fusing vintage sound and thoughtful lyrics with modern pop music.
High Point
The haunting yet mesmerizing “Marrow.”
Low Point
I enjoyed this album as a whole, but I think “The Sequel” was a weak track to end the album on.
Posted by Lisa White on May 28, 2009 @ 12:00 am