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Album Details
- Artist: St. Vincent
- Album: Strange Mercy
- Label:
- Year of Release: 2011
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: MusicCritic on 2011-10-11
RecommendAnnie Clark chose the moniker St. Vincent after St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centre where Dylan Thomas died saying, “it’s the place where poetry goes to die, [and] that’s me.” While the name has stuck and Clark’s ethereal voice certainly has a near-religious ephemerality, she is absolutely incorrect in her assertion that she is the place poetry goes to die.
Need proof? The beautiful Strange Mercy opens with the phrase “You’re all legs and I’m all nerves” (on ‘Chloe in the Afternoon’), and the album’s true standout ‘Cheerleader’ is a balance of beautiful poetic juxtaposition drenched in heartbreak and a lyricism that would make Dylan Thomas proud.
Strange Mercy listens like a poetic treatise to lost love, learning to stand on your own and saying goodbye when goodbye is the last thing you want to say.
St. Vincent’s voice is bright, clear and beautiful. On this third album Clark is a near perfect combination of Jenny Lewis and PJ Harvey. Fortunately, she leads more toward the gravelly, sexy Harvey, chanelling Lewis only on the Rilo Kiley-esque ‘Northern Lights.’
Sonically, St. Vincent hasn’t reinvented the wheel but she has written a beautiful album for all those moments when you just to stand on your own two feet.
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on 2012-02-29 CharlesMartel Said:
Annie Clark has had a long and, to date, not really noticed career as a singer-songwriter indie pop/rock/folk musician, hiding behind the name of St Vincent. I have listened to a number of her albums over the years but never felt compelled to go out and get one. Then along came " Strange Mercy " and I took the plunge. Now I am not so sure I did the right thing.
Now, if you like Sufjan Stevens you will probably like this. (Annie Clark was, for a time, part of Surjan Stevens touring band). Thankfully Ms Clark has eschewed the pretentiously long song-titles and stuck to simple straightforward comprehensible ones. Good. A plus for her and the album. The trouble is, I am not a fan of Sufjan Stevens style of Americana music for the Twitter generation or a substitute for Ritalin, take your pick. So why would I compare St Vincent to Sufjan Stevens and, more to the point, why would I buy an album by someone who compares with him.
Well, this goes to the heart of the pattern of music buying which I have subsconsciously adopted or, more likely, fallen into. When I listened to the opening few tracks of the album I was quite impressed. " Chloe in the Afternoon " is a good enough pop song with some interesting lyrics and some innovative ideas which give it an edge. That is followed up by "Cruel" . This was released as a single and deservedly so, for it is the pick of the bunch. By the end of this I was pretty much settled on buying this, but just to make sure, "Cheerleader" followed up and finally convinced me. This was an album which mixed pop hooks with some decent lyrics and melodies into an entertaining whole.
The problem is, that apart from these three songs, and " Champagne Year" a bit later on, the album's promise on listening to it at the start was not delivered on. The innovation detected earlier on soon subsides into a kind of inexplicable weirdness. Sure, it suits Clark's voice, but that sort of ethereal, dreamy female vocal style has become a bit passe having been done already by Kate Bush, Elisabeth Fraser and Harriet Wheeler to name but a few. The end result is somewhat of a let down. I expected more from this and yet, after the opening three tracks, the album largely failed to deliver. The initial appeal soon melted away into a kind of mild curiosity as to how the weird aspects of the songs - odd time shifts, strange melodic patters and the like - could meld with the vocals.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that any track on the album which did not begin with a C was not enough to hold my attention. In effect, "Strange Mercy " gets the rating for four tracks alone.
Rating: 6/10
Review:
on 2011-12-13 jacobking Said:
Sometimes I find art, film or a piece music falling in-between this gray space of awkwardness and a place where I am a bit uneasy and not too sure if I should be laughing or be serious. It reminds me of the first time I saw David Lynch's Eraserhead, ( sober I might add, ) and was clearly the only person laughing in the room. It was a comedy right? Also I find this void and feeling when I am watching a comedian BOMB onstage and can't help but laugh at the strain and stress of the situation. It's the elephant in the room.
Interestingly I had that same gap of humor and reality while listing to the sonic canvas of Annie Clark's musical statement St Vincent and her latest effort Strange Mercy on 4AD. Lush and melodic with broken time signatures reminding me of Eno / Fripp guitar textures, St Vincent are an outstanding project, ugly, beautiful and angular all at the same time.
Speaking from a technical side, the guitar playing is wonderful in its complexity and simplicity, tone and static. It's on par and relevant to any guitar nerd who believes that Adrian Belew is a bit more interesting than Mudvayne. Vocally speaking, its leaning in the direction of the lush and creative vocals from Elizabeth Frazier / Cocteau Twins and my ears like it.
I asked myself how did this happen? Why now? Why St Vincent ? Maybe the magic answer is that Annie Clark's DNA is mildly related to jazz guitarist Tuck Andress or because she was able to run away just in the nick of time before losing her creativity to too much formal guitar training. Whatever the reason - its a good thing! If you're not convinced, listen to the song Surgeon and get back with me.
Rating: 8/10
