Listen to the way "Dilettante" seethes with anxiety, as Clark sings, "While you are sleepin' / my mind goes creakin' down the hall," amid distorted bursts of wah-wah keyboards and militaristic snare-drum attacks. Vincent is also masterful at pairing just the right instrumental touches with unsettling lyrical phrases. But with all that searing guitar work and a new-found love of analog keyboards (check out that wailing, Future Shock-conjuring synth solo at the end of "Surgeon"), Clark's music feels wide-open and urgent. Songs like the buoyant "Cruel" - with its overlapping, synthy hooks - are complex, with engrossing layers of melodies and counter-melodies that reveal new dimensions with each exposure. Vincent's latest work continues this path of musical expansion. With the aid of producer/engineer John Congleton, Strange Mercy builds upon the groundwork laid on her previous records: Marry Me, with its ornate pop songs, was more or less a laptop construction, while its ambitious successor, Actor, took similarly intricate compositions and fleshed them out with fuller, darker arrangements. She manipulates and contorts and totally shreds on the guitar, creating a full arsenal of textures that provide the backbone of St. From the first bit of lip-curling guitar buzz in "Chloe in the Afternoon" to the freak-out riffs of "Northern Lights," it's clear that Clark has mastered her instrument in a way increasingly few in indie rock do. Vincent's new Strange Mercy is Clark's guitar work. For all that's been said about her beguiling vocals and her knack for fearlessly creative compositions, what shines throughout St. Vincent - but so too have her musical gifts. 13.Īudio for this feature is no longer available.Īnnie Clark's popularity has grown considerably in the past few years - from a costumed member of Polyphonic Spree and winged member of Sufjan Stevens' band to an exceptional artist in her own right as St. Vincent's Annie Clark returns with her best and most immediate work, Strange Mercy, out Sept.
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