CD Odyssey Disc 1468: St.Vincent

Welcome back, gentle readers! A reminder to please continue to do your part to bend the pandemic curve, because I am way past done with drinking and dining outside.

Disc 1468 is…. Marry Me

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover?  St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) stares straight at us. Is she inviting us to listen to her record, or daring us?

How I Came To Know It: I didn’t initially love this record, but later St. Vincent albums were so good, I gave her earlier work a second chance. I found it better than I remembered and so here we are.

How It Stacks Up: I plan to buy St. Vincent’s new album “Daddy’s Home” when it comes out in mid-May, but as of right now I have a total of six of her records. Of those six, I put “Marry Me” in at…#6. Something has to be last.

Ratings: 3 stars

St. Vincent has gotten progressively better on every record she’s released. Given this, it shouldn’t surprise that her first record, “Marry Me,” isn’t 100% there for me. That said, even a lesser St. Vincent album still has a lot to offer.

St. Vincent changes up her sound a lot from record to record, challenging her fans to follow where she leads. Most records will include a combination of rock guitar, pop hooks, artful noise, and jazz, in different measures depending on where she’s at in her career. Pile it all together and you get the kind of music that gives Windows Media Player an aneurism in setting the genre column. In these moments, it usually goes with one of the big three “what the hell does that mean?” designations: “indie”, “alternative” or my personal favourite “miscellaneous”. For “Marry Me” it went for “alternative”. Sure.

In this case, “alternative” means a heavier focus on the art of noise elements and a larger dose of jazz in both the arrangements and the melodic structures. Vocally, this draws out some amazing performances from Clark, who’s singing is sometimes not given the attention it deserves, simply because critics focus heavily on just how innovative the music is.

On “Marry Me” her vocals are as good as anywhere in her career, with a rich, pure tone that stays full through her entire register. The jazz qualities on the record, bring out her inner cabaret singer as well, and at various moments it feels like she channels Billie Holiday, Vera Lynn and even Liza Minelli. For a record that is so thoroughly modern, Clark sings with a timeless and classic grace.

Armed with this voice, she sets to pulling disparate sounds together to make a kind of music few could pull off. “The Apocalypse Song” is a strong example, featuring a sublime vocal, matched with violin bits that feel pulled out of an old classical tune, guitars holding down the rhythm and a bridge composed largely of syncopated hand claps and guitar growls that are so reverbed out they sound like feedback. This shit should not work, but it does.

What holds the record back is nothing more than my long-standing animus to jazz. Mid-song shifts within the structure of “Landmines” left me wishing she’d stick with one, or even two musical notions instead of cramming three or four into a song. It is hard to criticize, since it is also what makes St. Vincent great, but from time to time it goes places I don’t want to follow.

Similarly, the meandering piano on “We Put a Pearl in the Ground” is the wrong side of that classic sound. This tune feels at home as the soundtrack of a forlorn “found love by the lakeside but then lost it” seventies romantic tear-jerker. I’m more of a romantic comedy kind of guy.

For the most part, though, I am happy to have St. Vincent walk me through these complex compositions. On “Your Lips Are Red” she mixes some of the best guitar ever into an overblown Queen-esque number, and then sneaks some jazz piano in, but I loved every minute of it.

Many St. Vincent fans will no doubt claim “Marry Me” is her best record. While those fans are wrong, there is more than enough good stuff on the record that they don’t need to be embarrassed of their opinion.

Best tracks: Now Now, Your Lips Are Red, Marry Me, The Apocalypse Song

CD Odyssey Disc 1438: St. Vincent

After a couple of days driving to work (how decadent) I took the bus so I could walk home tonight and listen to this record. I enjoyed the walk, even though it reminded me I haven’t had nearly enough exercise over the last few weeks.

Disc 1438 is…. Actor

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover?  A Giant Head Cover! This Giant Head belongs to Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) and is one of my all-time favourite Giant Heads.

How I Came To Know It: I loved 2017’s Masseduction (reviewed at Disc 1206) so much that I started digging into St. Vincent’s back catalogue to see if her earlier records appealed to me more after the passage of time. They sure did.

How It Stacks Up: I have six St. Vincent albums. Of those, “Actor” comes in at #4.

Ratings: 4 stars

I first heard “Actor” the year it came out. I gave it a full listen, found it fascinating but then moved on without a second thought. Now 11 years old, “Actor” remains so innovative it still sounds like it is from the future. As a bonus, my own ear for music has finally caught up to St. Vincent, allowing me to appreciate at least some of what she’s trying to accomplish. I expect I’m still missing plenty.

This record finds St. Vincent only beginning to plumb the depths of sound experiment, and it is already more advanced than most songwriters accomplish in a lifetime. She blends bells, reverb, cacophonous percussion and good old fashioned rock guitar. For those who don’t know, St. Vincent is one of rock and roll’s most gifted and inspiring guitar players. Like Tom Morello, she can tease almost any sound imaginable from a guitar and turn it into compelling music.

Innovation is only useful if it makes beautiful music. Through all the crazy experimentation St. Vincent threads melodies that are equal to any pop hit, and far more interesting to the ear. Pop’s power is usually in its ability to let your ear anticipate where the tune is going to go (this is both pleasurable, and makes you feel clever). On “Actor” I rarely know where these songs will go, but each note still manages to feel just right when it lands.

There are admittedly moments on “Actor” which are slightly weirder than they are pleasant, but that tension of off-putting sounds serves to make the melodies even more inspiring as they rise to the top of the tune. There were times when I wanted things to tone themselves down a bit, but even in those moments, I enjoyed not getting my way.

Due to her skills in manipulating sound and writing mind-blowing tunes, St. Vincent’s voice often gets short shrift. On “Actor” there are plenty of moments where she shows off a sweet and ethereal head voice. She could’ve been content to just sing these songs without all the bells, whistles and thumps, but we’re all lucky she didn’t. On more stripped-down songs like “The Bed” you get a front row seat to her vocal prowess, even as she continues to keep it weird with lyrics full of gun play and hints of violence.

When the sweetness of her vocals and the cyborg-inspired arrangements meet halfway you get brilliant songs like “Marrow”. St. Vincent is well aware of the tension created in “Marrow” to the point of voicing them in the lyrics:

“Muscle connects to the bone
And bone to the ire and the marrow
I wish I had a gentle mind
And a spine made up of iron

“Mouth connects to the teeth
And teeth to the loves and the curses
Honey, can you reach that spot
That needs oiling and fixing?”

When the chorus hits, she turns her guitar reverb into something resembling a trumpet in a robot factory. It is both haunting and mechanical, and above all that, catchy as hell.

It also shows just what a trendsetter she is. The ambient sadness of Phoebe Bridgers and the weird syncopation of Poppy both owe their roots to forward thinking records like “Actor.”

“Actor” doesn’t match the brilliance of St. Vincent’s classic eponymous album, nor the five-star brilliance of both “Masseduction” and “Masseducation” but it comes close, while showing the roots of what was to come. I’m glad I went back for a second listen.

Best tracks: The Strangers, Actor Out of Work, Laughing With a Mouth of Blood, Marrow, The Bed, The Party

CD Odyssey Disc 1294: Sleater-Kinney

I’ve spent the week juggling social engagements (also working). I never get frustrated with the pressure of seeing all the people I care about, because it is a wonderful reminder that I am rich with friends. That’s the best kind of rich.

Anyway, on to the review which is my second perfect score in three albums. Don’t worry, I’m not getting soft, I’m just getting exposed to some seriously great music.

Disc 1294 is… The Center Won’t Hold

Artist: Sleater-Kinney

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? A creative twist on the very traditional (and oft-referenced) Giant Head cover. Here Sleater-Kinney has blended their heads together into a single Giant Head. Other notable albums with blended/distorted heads include Queen’s “The Miracle” (reviewed way back at Disc 52) and Sarah Jarosz’s “Follow Me Down” (reviewed at Disc 996).

How I Came to Know It: I was already a fan of Sleater-Kinney through their earlier work and so gave this record a try.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Sleater-Kinney albums that span across their career. This record is their best yet, and I’m putting in #1. It is also one of the best records of 2019 so far.

Ratings: 5 stars

“The Center Won’t Hold” is a great example of how it is never too late in a band’s career to deliver a classic record. Twenty-five years after their first album took Seattle's alternative rock scene by storm, Sleater-Kinney has once again delivered something fresh and furious, with a new sound that demonstrates the bravery to explore new approaches to their work.

A big part of this new approach is courtesy of the musical genius that is St. Vincent (who actually is the producer this time, unlike my gaffe earlier this month). St. Vincent is doing things like no one else in music right now, finding novel ways to blend techno, pop and hard rock into a sound that is crisp and crunchy at the same time. On “The Center Won’t Hold” she brings her inspired alchemy to Sleater-Kinney.

The result is a the riot grrrl snarl that Sleater-Kinney helped create in the early nineties, blended with St. Vincent’s mastery of soundscapes and sharp yet visceral production. This will not suit all Sleater-Kinney devotees, who may miss the organic garage rock sound of their earlier records, but I love it. The original bite is still there, but now with some creative studio decisions that helps the songs stand out both individually and one to the other.

Sleater-Kinney have long been known as great songwriters, matching catchy riffs with rebellious anger. Their lyrics explore universal truths about the human condition through a personal introspection that is sometimes harrowing in its honesty. “The Center Won’t Hold” has this talent on full display.

The album also shows remarkable musical range. The title track is a cross between industrial nineties percussion and punk snarl and the album branches from there into virtually every nook and cranny that rock and roll has to offer.

“Hurry on Home” is a song full of urgency and sexual energy with a driving guitar that – like the desires of its narrator – cannot be denied. “Can I Go On” takes that energy and examines it in the third person – exploring the relationship between an artist’s personal desires, and the marketing of those desires for money, best exemplified in this line:

“Everyone I know is funny

But jokes don’t make us money

Sell our rage, buy and trade

But we still cry for free every day.”

There are also songs with laid back surfer guitar (“Restless”), songs with apocalyptic feedback (“RUINS”) and songs filled with pop hooks and handclaps (“LOVE”). Despite all this variety, the album’s centre does hold, with all these sounds coming together in a cohesive whole. The vocals are the best of any album to date, which is saying something, and St. Vincent’s steady hand on the tiller just takes everything great about Sleater-Kinney and somehow makes it better.

It is hard to pick favourites on a record like this, but “The Dog/The Body” is a perfect mix of thoughtful lyrics, production brilliance, and a song structure that sways back and forth between raw and emotional verses like:

“I’m just the dog

I’m just the body tonight

I’m just the fist without

The will to fight.”

that are filled with doubt, and a triumphant chorus of

“Baby, baby, baby, I don’t mind

Can’t keep singing the same old lines”

featuring a devil-may-care melodic soar that internalizes all that doubt and draws strength from it. The song has a slow, perfectly timed build and ends with some inspired guitar and a slow fade out. It leaves you feeling a bit unresolved, but at ease with the lack of closure all the same.

Old-school Sleater-Kinney fans might not like the shift in their sound, but that would be their loss. I love listening to an artist evolve over time, and with results this amazing, Sleater-Kinney can keep shifting their centre all they want.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1207: St. Vincent

As hinted at in my last review, this album was actually randomly rolled for my last review, but I replaced it with “Masseduction” since that was the original release of the same songs, one year earlier, and it just made sense to grok that first. Now we return to regularly scheduled programming, and that record’s reinterpretation.

Disc 1207 is… Masseducation

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), stripped down, just like this album’s production. Lest you think this means you can presume to know her better, she presents the photo out of focus as a reminder that like any artist she shows exactly what she means to show, and nothing more.

How I Came To Know It: If you’ve read my previous review you will know how much I loved “Masseduction” so when I found out St. Vincent had done an acoustic version I snapped it up as soon as it hit the shelves.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three St. Vincent albums. It is hard to rate an album that is essentially the same songs as the last one, but since that’s the task at hand, I’ll put “Masseducation” in second place out of those three records.

Ratings:  5 stars

Just like the single ‘a’ added to this album’s title, one small change in the approach to a record can result in a whole new way of seeing it. On “Masseducation” the change is the switch from electric to acoustic, and the arrangement from multiple instruments down to a single piano.

That pianist is Thomas Bartlett, aka “Doveman” (because apparently everyone has to have a stage name these days). Over two days he and Clark sat in a studio apartment and recorded the songs from her 2017 album “Masseduction.” His task: take that album’s brilliant mix of techno, rock and pop and boil it down into arrangements for a single piano. Lots of songs are originally written just sitting at the piano anyway, so the task isn’t all that complicated, but making the result sound like something more than a muted demo is where things get tricky.

Fortunately, Bartlett is more than up to the task. There are times where he plays the tune straight - no chaser, times when he adds in flourishes that create additional emotional depth and times where he just takes his hands off the keys and lets St. Vincent’s vocals stand alone. Most importantly, he has a good understanding of where each approach fits best.

The task is also daunting for St. Vincent. “Masseducation” leaves no room for subterfuge and no production to hide any shortcomings behind. In response, she delivers a powerful and fearless vocal performance. Her rich tone fills in all the space left between the piano notes, and often carries the song on their own. I was reminded favourably of great pop vocalists like Lady Gaga or Sheryl Crow who undertook similarly brave vocal performances. I’ve always been impressed by St. Vincent’s talents as a guitar player and as a songwriter but “Masseducation” gave me a whole new appreciation for her talents as a singer.

Along the way, she also shows the beautiful bones of these songs. Even a song like “Pills” which has a heavily produced approach on its original presentation still works with just a piano and voice. A good song can be played in any style, and these are some of the best songs you will find, pop or otherwise.

All of the themes I explored on my review of “Masseduction” are present here as well, with the same thoughtful exploration of sex, desire and vulnerability. However, the stories feel more raw without the sugarcoating of a pop backbeat or guitar treatment. “Savior” is even more intensely sexual and “Hang On Me” is even more wan and heart-worn than ever.

My only minor quibble is on “New York” where St. Vincent shifts a part of the melody to make it drop down where the original version soars. That said, the change also made me see the song in a new light. The theme of apology and regret is consistent, but in the original there is a manic quality to the experience. Here, it leaves you feeling empty and unsatisfied. It is a reminder that the same source of grief can manifest itself in a lot of different, but related emotions.

The album also rearranges the song order. The songs that launch “Masseduction” (“Hang on Me” and “Pills”) are flipped to the end of “Masseducation”. The introspective and comparatively quiet “Slow Disco” is moved from the end to the first track. This reminds the listener that this will be a more intimate journey. It also has the effect of changing the overall emotional journey from manic doubt through to quiet uncertainty into the reverse.

On my first listen I thought the record would end up just shy of 5 stars; I didn’t love some of the jazzy elements in Bartlett’s piano playing. However, as I let the record sink in I realized it was having just as much impact on me as “Masseduction” did, but in a subtly different way. I was even finding different favourites as a result (“Young Lover” in particular benefits from the new treatment). Songs this good, and performances this powerful can’t be denied.

And so we sit with the same record getting 5 stars all over again, only this time it is completely different. Thanks for the education, Ms. Clark.

Best tracks: All tracks, but in particular Slow Disco, Savior, Masseduction, Smoking Section, Young Lover, Happy Birthday Johnny, Pills, Hang on Me. Yes, the other 4 are great too.

CD Odyssey Disc 1206: St. Vincent

As readers of this blog’s fine print will know, while I roll what I’m going to review randomly, Rule #5 allows me to insert a new (to me) album into the process if I choose to do so. Over the past few years I have taken to rolling out of this new (to me) backlog, which usually sits at around 100 albums or so.

On my last foray into the new section I rolled “Masseducation”, which is St. Vincent’s acoustic reimagining of her previous album “Masseduction.” It seemed wrong to review the reinterpretation before I ever gave the original a full listen and since both were in the new music section…here we are.

I bet you can guess what album Disc 1207’s going to be, after which I promise to return the Odyssey to regular lack-of-scheduled programming.

Disc 1206 is… Masseduction

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Warning: album cover may contain suggestive scenes. The music has a few as well.

How I Came To Know It: I really liked St. Vincent’s previous album (reviewed back at Disc 858) released a few years earlier, and the first few singles off of “Masseduction” were great, so I took a chance on the rest.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three St. Vincent albums. Of the three, “Masseduction” is my favourite, so #1.

Ratings:  5 stars

Like the album cover, “Masseduction” is provocative, and sexy, presented on the surface as awkward and artificial, but with a deeper truth and integrity underneath. This is a complicated, thoughtful record that gets better and better on every listen.

Stylistically, St. Vincent (real name Annie Clark) once again displays her fearless willingness to borrow multiple musical styles and bend them to her unflinching artistic vision. Techno, rock and pop elements all blend and twist around one another, like three sets of legs under a set of satin sheets.

If that image sounds a bit racy, well so does this record. On “Masseduction” St. Vincent gives us thrills both above and below the waistline, and then confronts us with our own voyeurism. “Pills” and “Los Ageless” are anthems about the artificiality of modern existence, but to see them as just this would be a mistake. They are equally about how we willingly embrace artificiality as armour. Clark seems to be saying that we constructed our society this way and that when we’ve peeled the onion down to the core, we will only find our own desires fueling all the structures above. Consider the opening lines of “Los Ageless”:

“In Los Ageless, the winter never comes

In Los Ageless, the mothers milk their young

But I can keep running

No, I can keep running

The Los Ageless hang out by the bar

Burn the pages of unwritten memoirs

But I can keep running

No, I can keep running

“How can anybody have you?

How can anybody have you and lose you?

How can anybody have you and lose you

And not lose their minds, too?”

In the end, behind a series of killer back beats and innovative guitar riffs we find our narrator exploring her own loss, real and visceral despite all the artificiality wrapped around it.

On “Savior” and the title track, St. Vincent explores our complex relationship with desire, sexuality and objectification. “Savior” is a song about a woman whose partner likes her to dress up in costumes. There is some awkwardness in these roleplaying sequences, and even a little frustrated boredom with a nurse outfit that “rides and sticks to my thighs and my hips.” “Savior” is the sex that goes with the drugs in “Pills” and the rock and roll lifestyle of “Los Ageless,” but the themes are similar: people put on masks to give themselves a little space from the real, but the complexity of the human condition won’t be denied.

Many of these songs have the instruments artificially dressed up as well – wearing layers of reverb and accessorized with machine-generated back beats. They are the perfect mix of the organic, wrapping itself in the artificial. It is subtle and clever, and – also important – catchy as hell. You can just sit and groove along, or you can listen a little closer and let it up into your head. It works equally well either way.

This alone would make “Masseduction” a brilliant record, but St. Vincent adds songs that are deeply moving and intensely personal. “New York” is a stripped down song about regret and lost love, and “Happy Birthday, Johnny” is about watching a loved one lose themselves in poor life choices, and know there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Or it could be that these intensely personal songs are just St. Vincent exploring the internal angst of those same characters out there popping pills and donning sexy nurse outfits. It doesn’t really matter in the end, because great art is great art, and “Masseduction” is great art. It is musically profound, brave and powerful. You can let it wash over you like an emotional tide or you can immerse yourself in its complex explorations of sex, identity and society. Either way you won’t be disappointed.

Best tracks: All tracks, but in particular Hang On Me, Pills, Masseduction, Los Ageless, Happy Birthday Johnny, Savior, New York, Slow Disco and Smoking Section. Yes, the other 4 are good too.

CD Odyssey Disc 858: St. Vincent

Yesterday walking home there was an aquamarine umbrella discarded in someone’s front yard. Today, it was still there and, a few doors further down, there was a second aquamarine umbrella, again discarded. Was this a strange coincidence or a piece of performance art? The human brain will always seek to find patterns, making the answer to that question a riddle that eats its own tail.

Disc 858 is….Self-Titled

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? St. Vincent rocks the new grey/pastel hair cut in a way that lets you know she was doing it before it was cool. Her dress is fabulous, as is her imperious pose, like she’s an empress in some science fiction future holding court. The throne itself falls a bit short. It looks like it was installed by bath-fitters over top of the original throne.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been getting a lot of leads on new music from the folks at AV Club  lately. I read every music review and if it sounds interesting enough, I’ll listen to a couple of tracks (usually embedded in the review). I liked what I heard from this album and so I bought it.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have this one St. Vincent album, so it can’t really stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

This album is completely outside of what I usually enjoy in music, but is so good at what it does it drew me in and made me fall in love.

This album is heavily produced and synthesized and I was tempted at first to label it electronica. However, at its core it is pure pop music, filled with bleeps, boops and whistles, all layered in on itself in a goulash of sound. It is decidedly out of my wheelhouse, but so artfully done I can’t resist it. I don’t even want to resist it.

The various sound effects and digital touches are perfectly placed and despite a whole lot of things going on, these songs never feel busy or overproduced. St. Vincent knows just where to put an effect, where to let a little guitar fuzz through and where to drop the synth-funk. Awesome and innovative beats serve as the pie crust for all the filling in these songs; tasty and supportive in equal measure.

The music has an otherworldly quality, and St. Vincent’s voice is the perfect match to the experience. She sings beautifully in the high end of her range, always sounding powerful and ethereal in equal measure. If Enya is what elves sound like when they sing, St. Vincent is what elves would sound like if they traveled into space.

The album is a tasteful 10 songs and 40 minutes and even though I listened to it almost three complete times over the past two days, it was still leaving me wanting more every time through.

The new wave-inspired and dystopian “Birth in Reverse” is a musical and lyrical exploration of the modern age and the perceived pointlessness of it all. “Digital Witness” does the same thing, but with a funky beat that makes you want to dance in the ruins of it all. When St. Vincent sings “People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window” it is a call to action for us to all wake up, couched in electronic beats and rhythms. These songs are like Trojan horses inside the technology fun-house we’ve locked ourselves in.

Then, just when you think St. Vincent is all crazy beats and frenetic social commentary, she slows things down with songs that are slow, heartfelt and majestic like “I Prefer Your Love” and “Severed Crossed Fingers.” There is desperation and loss in these songs, but strange triumph is woven through them that makes your heart swell rather than sink

“Huey Newton” does a little bit of everything, with dulled out back beats, and echoing, haunting lyrics. Halfway through the song a fuzzed out guitar appears and absolutely rocks out like a post-singularity apocalypse.

I’d like to point to a song or two where St. Vincent oversteps a bit or where her ambition gets the better of her, but despite a fearless approach to melody, production and arrangement it never happens. This album is proof that nothing exceeds like excess.

I was so impressed by St. Vincent’s self-titled fifth studio album that I spent quite a bit of time checking out her previous four, but none of them have the same level of excellence that she shows on this one. All I can hope for is that everything she does from here forward is as good. That will be a tall order to fill.

Best tracks:  Birth in Reverse, Prince Johnny, Huey Newton, Digital Witness, I Prefer Your Love, Severed Crossed Fingers