Strange Mercy

I will freely admit that I hadn't heard of St. Vincent until the Onion's A.V. Club told me that her 2009 album, Actor, was good and that I should listen to it.
Since learning of and thoroughly enjoying that album, I have been eagerly awaiting Annie Clark's latest release, Strange Mercy.

At first listen, the lead single, "Cruel", struck me as a bit mainstream compared to the majority of the previous album, but after listening to it in the framework of the rest of the album as a whole, I began to understand that this was not the case at all.
Strange Mercy, while less dense and involved than Actor, has a wonderfully experimental quality to a lot of it, with Clark placing herself in situations we have yet to see, which is always exciting and refreshing.
While this album is the most sparse we've seen from her (I don't consider her first album, Marry Me, sparse so much as dull), the choice to not go with typical instrumentation really pays off and creates a unique sound.

One aspect of St. Vincent's music has not changed on Strange Mercy and that is her guitar which still sounds like it's made of wasps and Stylophones. It has the ability to shock its way through the dreamy vocals and syrupy keyboards and keep the attention of the listener.
The combination of the warm, soporific elements and the bracing, unflinching electricity is compelling.
Add on top of that Clark's malleable and incredibly expressive vocal style which can be as piping and sharp as Bjork (as on the album's trance-inducing opener, "Chloe In The Afternoon") and as smooth and smoky as Fiona Apple (as on the quiet, bitter "Champagne Year").
Her voice allows us to feel the fear during the cacophonic climax of "Northern Lights", which features Clark shrilling repeatedly: "I saw the Northern Lights/Convinced it was the end of time".
"Neutered Fruit" is equal parts lighthearted, meandering stroll through a sunny garden and smoldering unrequited-love ballade ("Did you ever really stare at me/the way that I stared at you?"), again due to the versatility of her vocals.
The title track tells the sad tale of a mother and wife whose husband is in jail, the mood of the lyrics reinforced by some synths pulled straight from a rainy afternoon in the 80's.
The end of "Surgeon" also borrows a bit from the 80's...the funky part of the 80's.

One of my favorite tracks is "Cheerleader", which stands out with its smug yet confessional verses and angry, declarative chorus; the former is made up of a litany of high school-caliber sins set to the subtle strums of tentative guitars ("I've had good times with some bad guys/I've told whole lies with a half smile") while the latter is accompanied, first by a huge, buzzing drumbeat, then the full voice of both Clark and the rest of the band ("I don't want to be a cheerleader no more/I don't want to be a dirt eater no more").

The album isn't as epic or cinematic or welcoming as Actor; it takes more effort to completely enjoy, but, for some at least, it'll be worth it.
Personally, I enjoy Actor more than Strange Mercy, but the depth and innovation of the music here will surprise the listener.
I'm finding that this album goes right along with the image I've constructed in my mind of Annie Clark/St. Vincent through her music: she's timid, yet forceful, both unsure of herself and overconfident, one quality usually overcompensating for the other. Her music paints her as that one girl you know who is smart, funny, attractive and yet doesn't seem to know it and can never really find happiness because of her second guessing. Hopefully, this is not the case with the real Annie Clark, but, for the purpose of her art, I think the more problems she has, the better and more interesting the journey she brings us on will be.

For me, this might go down as the most delightful surprise of 2011. It's not that I had low expectations for this, St. Vincent's third LP. It's simply that I didn't have any expectations at all. I'm not unfamiliar with Annie Clark's body of work, I, along with many others got a hold of, and thoroughly enjoyed her 2009 sophomore effort Actor. It wasn't album of the year or anything, but it was definitely one of the more colorful outputs of that year. Wonderful art pop overflowing with lush instrumentation and overtly melodic sensibilities.

As eccentric and simply delightful as Actor is, Clark did lose something through all the orchestration and inventiveness of the music that she had a firm grip on on her debut LPMarry Me, that being ...herself. Throughout her debut she was consistently expressing herself, every instrument and note was there only to emphasize the duality, conflict and pure raw emotion within her own self. The music was very self contained and felt very much a part of Miss Clark, as if she were cutting herself open and handing you her body parts on demand. Whereas Actor finds her exploring texture and sounds for our ecstatic enjoyment (and wedid enjoy it), in retrospect it feels now like an album she simply needed to get out of the way in order to make Strange Mercy.

On this, Clark's third LP as St. Vincent, we find her with nigh perfect control over her music, now with an arsenal of tricks up her sleeve, every single track has an element of surprise. Although the instrumentation might not be as flashy as that on Actor, it feels more controlled, everything that needs to be there is there. That's not to say that the album has a minimalist approach, hardly. This is still very, very layered music with which one reaps the true rewards after multiple listens. It's simply to say that Clark has the confidence now to stand on her own two feet, and scream and shout and cry without the need for an orchestra backing her up, it's really the greatest of compliments and a testament to her ability as an artist.

The sound of this album is so full and pleasing to the ears, it simply feels nice to listen to, even more-so than Actor, which as it stands is an album noted for it's textures. The tone of the guitar is so clumpy and ugly and obnoxious, and juxtaposes the gentle atmosphere of the background synths perfectly. There's always a good number of high-end and low-end sounds going on at any one time, making for a very satisfying listening experience. And if there's anyone who knows how to write an original hook, it's most definitely Annie Clark. Cruel, the album's first lead single has a hook that will make your ears salivate at it's pure delightful infectiousness, and it's interesting fretwork and layering assure rewarding repeat listens.

What leaves me in such adoration for this album isn't simply the depth, or the innovation (although this album would be nothing without them). It reminded me of why I listen to music so often in the first place, it's fun. Buckets of fun. This album is the `wild Friday night out' of recent releases, just try to slow your pulse during the synth solo in Surgeon, or the floor-stomping chorus of Cheerleader. With Strange Mercy Clark has proved to be an innovative artist with a bright future ahead of her, worth our full attention, and pity on anyone who isn't watching.

[...]

St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (2011)

I try not to judge records based on what I want them to be; instead, I always try to accept them for what they are. Having said that, STRANGE MERCY, the third album by St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), sounds a lot like her previous one, ACTOR. STRANGE MERCY is essentially ACTOR part II, just not quite as good. The same basic (and highly unique) sound is evident on her latest offering: her angelic overdubbed choirs, the electric carnival music, the surreal, Wizard of Oz atmosphere, her evocative tales that feel so personal...STRANGE MERCY can't help but suffer to a certain extent from maintaining this same basic approach although I don't think that's why it doesn't exactly measure up to its predecessor.

Some critics insist that artists need to take their music in different directions with each new album, but that's not fair. I say musicians don't need to reinvent the freakin' wheel every time out. When an artist is doing great work, there's absolutely nothing wrong with continuing to create and explore (and hopefully improve on) that same style. But I would have to say that some of the songs on STRANGE MERCY don't sound as inspired as most of the tracks on ACTOR. And I just can't get around the fact that it's not as fresh and inventive the way ACTOR sounded when it was first released.

Aside from these somewhat nit-picky criticisms, what we have here is another wonderful collection of St. Vincent songs. Nevertheless, despite my policy of always trying to accept albums on their own terms, I still wish Annie had pushed the music further on this one. It starts off very strong with "Chloe in the Afternoon," an unusual song that had me believing Annie DID get stranger, that she was in fact taking it up a notch. Unfortunately, that's not really the case on the rest of the album, for the most part at least. Take a song like "Surgeon", a lackadaisical, typically lovely offering from St. Vincent. Towards the end it really begins to take off with some pumped-up bass synths and proggy synth squeals, only to end abruptly. By the latter half of the album, some of the songs lack energy and even seem a bit sluggish...This is not necessarily a bad thing; one could easily see it as just a different approach, a different feel, one that was intentionally created and a very enjoyable one at that. So maybe it's the songs themselves that just aren't as impressive...but I can't claim that with much conviction either because they're really very good. The only one I'm really not crazy about is the plodding "Cheerleader," one of the most well-liked tracks based on what I've read. Personally, I find the chorus to be annoying - "I, I, I, I don't want to be a cheerleader no more." I always think, "Well don't be one then! No one's forcing you to!" But that's my own personal hang-up and not necessarily a good reason for anyone else to dislike it. One could argue that the subject of the song is struggling with peer pressure, but I still don't sympathize...

The bottom line is this: I like ACTOR more than I like STRANGE MERCY - and I like both of them more than I like the excellent but ultimately less distinctive debut. However, anyone who loves ACTOR will surely find a lot to love about STRANGE MERCY too. It's just not quite as impressive.

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