About this item

St. Vincent is Annie Clark, born in Tulsa, OK, the middle child of nine brothers and sisters. She cut her musical teeth with the Polyphonic Spree, as well as supporting Sufjan Stevens, Television, Arcade Fire and Midlake amongst others. St. Vincent makes cinematic pop epics that feel at times like Paris in the 20s before all the fun ended. Or, conversely, an orchestra of pure modernity — a new American music, informed by jazz, gospel blues, Southern folk music, and classical composition but, in the end, an animal original unto itself. On "Marry Me", we see a smartly crafted deluge of guitar, bass, and beats pulsing forward with warmth and immediacy alongside Annie's classy soprano. Her lyrics can be weird or tongue-in-cheek or dead serious, capturing verily what it feels like to be 24 years old in America and caught up in the delirium of love blues and wartime blues and the various swashbuckling adventures of existence. Horns and strings cry out brassy and full-bodied over digital keyboards. Songs rock out vigorously, break down into squiggling post-noise-rock deconstructions, roll out mellow and slow-flowing as a river. Backing harmonies and kiddie choirs loom in the distance, rise, and lilt above the stately grandiosity.

TRACK LISTING