ST. VINCENT “Actor”
I keep hearing the word haunting in reference to ST. VINCENT’s sophomore album Actor, and I agree with most everyone that it is an apt adjective to describe Annie Clark’s solo work. Actor emanates eery beauty, interrupted by stark bursts of noise, and further darkened by Clark’s disturbing lyrics. It’s a complex album thematically and musically, and considering I was ignorant to Clark’s existence upon embarking on this review, it is also the most pleasant surprise of 2009.
Much of Actor is enveloped by an anxiety and claustrophobia that reminds me of living in the close confines of a basketball hoop lined suburban culdesac. “Black Rainbow” is a pretty yet creepy string-based track in which the lyrics are sung with an urgent paranoia, evoking surreal images of a depressed home-dweller gazing out their roadside window: “Unkissed boys and girls of paradise / lining up around the block / back pockets full of dynamite / while neighbors talk and talk.” The song is like if JONI MITCHELL stayed up all night getting cynical by watching Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” and Sam Mendes’ “American Beauty,” with a melody obviously inspired by Mitchell’s 1973 downer “Blue.”
Other songs strut rather than sulk. “Marrow” slams listeners with SONIC YOUTH-esque static and dancey-grooves, all underlined by the woodwind work of Hideaki Aomori, who played with Clark during her stint as a guitarist for SUFJAN STEVENS’ touring band. Actor takes traditional instruments – such as guitar and violins – and turns them on their heads. String flourishes sound spastic as the frantic beats that drive them, and are unnerving rather than inspiring. Much of the album treads on wild ground, but is reigned in by Clark’s lovely vocals, an oddly paired mixture of allure and chaos. It is Clark’s ability to channel both emotions effectively that makes Actor such an engaging release. If you dig CAT POWER or METRIC, you’d be a fool not to delve deep into this release.
4AD
