St. Vincent

So, I mentioned listening to St. Vincent on my road trip to and away from Wisconsin a few posts ago. However, I feel that she deserves her own post, however brief. St. Vincent is Annie Clark and a few other musicians (including Bowie pianist Mike Garson), but mostly it is just Annie Clark. Clark (23 years) has played guitar with both Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, but she's obviously more than fine on her own. I don't want to pick apart the album, but rather allow for its full natural ability to surprise and charm.

That being said, here are a few thoughts. Tracks 5 and 6, Marry Me and Paris is Burning, are a one-two punch. Now. Now. is really catchy and easily gets stuck in your head. The Apocalypse Song is pretty great too. These are ones that immediately come to my head -- though I must confess that I haven't listened to the album that many times yet (I just recently got it), but it immediately grabbed my attention for some reason -- perhaps because it fit and enhanced the mood and feeling of being in a car, looking out the window, watching the sun set over the rolling hills and grazing cows. I must also say though that it still sounds good sitting in a suburban bedroom.

Clark has great vocal range. Her vocals in Paris is Burning echo Beth Gibbons' (of Portishead) haunting delivery at times, but have an ethereal, formal soprano quality in other songs. There are beats, there are hooks, some eclectic instrumentation, horns, handclaps (always and epically underrated!), there are unexpected flourishes. The album displays a great range in mood, texture and tone. Your Lips Are Red is a nice, rollicking, dark song, then a few songs later is the more saccharine All My Stars Aligned. She's also a very skilled guitarist. I highly recommend checking her out. You can listen to her on her MySpace page.

She's touring, so check her out if she's in your town. I'm really excited to see her here in Omaha at The Waiting Room. Bear Country and Scout Niblett are opening, so it should be an overall really good show.