Album Review: St. Vincent’s Self-Titled

Annie Clark is the picture of perfection: she’s adorable, talented, and just the right amount of unpredictable. In this fourth solo-album, her performance and her art form are taken to a whole another level. Her album alone strings words and ideas together that sentences and essays could not convey to the masses. Her multiple talents shine in every single track as her voice sweeps you away and rocks your body ever so slightly into this captivating vortex that is St. Vincent.

The album starts off with the song “Rattlesnake,” a perfect representation of what it is to be Annie Clark. She is intriguing and multi-talented, but to some she can come off a little strange because she breaks the stereotypes of many other female performers. The rattlesnake itself is almost a commodity, which is no surprise that Annie Clark pulls this reference out at the beginning of her album. The rattlesnake has always been a creature of poison and intrigue, and with Annie’s risqué lyrics in this opening song such as “No ones around so I take off my clothes” her individuality and inspiration shines through and bites the audience as they sit there stunned and in awe of these lyrical but strange metaphors. Even though her presence may be poisonous to the mainstream media, it’s a compliment to her lyrical genius to have only a certain following in the underground music community. The upbeat electronics and guitar solos in this song keep the song light as she sings about being alone in the world, something of which seems ironic as she herself is becoming this emerging superstar.

Much of her album is very inquisitive and mysterious, as Annie critically examines the world around her as seen through her own eyes. Each track continues to follow the path of excitement and upbeat tempo even though she examines some heavy material. As the tracks continue on to “Birth in Reverse,” Annie exemplifies the direction of our nation as a whole. She poses this idea that society is in this mundane phase of life where we don’t create anything exciting, rather we let everything around us just happen. Just like a birth in reverse, society is crawling into a cave from where ideas and creations may not be able to escape. “Birth in Reverse” is one of the highly sought after tracks on the album that was previewed before the album was released earlier this week.

Much of her album continues to be critical on the world around her, which creates this deeper connection between the listener and St. Vincent to find the truth underneath all the facades that conceal the deeper understanding of the world. Many of these other tracks like “Digital Witness,” “Prince Jonny,” and “Huey Newton” continue to examine the world obsessed with technology. Which begs the question where our society will be heading with the boom and bust of all these technological advances. Her ability to connect to listeners on a deeper metaphoric level is what makes Annie stand out from a crowd. The album after a while continues on to talk more about her personal life as she examines love, life after death, relationships, and personal experiences that have made Annie Clark into the persona of St. Vincent with the tracks “I prefer you love,” “Regret” “Bring Me Your Love”, “Psychopath”, “Every Tear Disappears”, and “Severed Crossed Fingers”. All of which separately examine her demons and her experiences that metaphorically are beautiful as well as tragic.

St. Vincent has greatly refined her skills from her first album “Marry Me” until now her self-titled album “St. Vincent.” Her multiple talents are showcased in ability to perform, as well as shred on the guitar, a skill that seems so effortless that anyone could master it. The ability to create these interesting rhythms and beats with the synths, electronics, and intricate guitar riffs, and solos creates these indie electronic rock vibes, that in itself is a whole new class of music. One of the major reasons that she stands out compared to her peers is her ability to write poetic verse. The maturity that is expressed from her lyrics to her ability to put on a good performance is the emotional journey of what it means to be Annie Clark and how the world is through her eyes. Somewhere Annie must be writing new lyrics and new instrumentals, but for now her fans will have to wait and see where St. Vincent takes a stance on the world, which may lead to more lyrics about the critiques on the ever-developing world or even lyrics to describe the journey into the depths of the human psyche.