Category:
Pop

Try if you like:
Dirty Projectors, Fiona Apple, Grizzly Bear, Sarah Jaffe, The Polyphonic Spree

By mixing great guitar, a gorgeous voice and an ear for arrangements that run the gamut from country blues to post-mod lo-fi, Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has a lot of weight in the toolbox to pull out and throw around. Marry Me is a solid showcase for all of her talents, and, for these times, the rare record that contains virtually no filler.

 

“Jesus Saves, I spend,” “Paris is Burning,” and the titles track are stuffed with lyrical and musical goodies, as are “The Apocalypse Song” and “We Put A Pearl in the Ground.” Her guitar work deftly moves from in and out of familiar tuning, giving an avant-garde feel to some of the more pop-ish tunes. Like any great artist, Clark keeps you guessing lyrically as well, mixing the hopeful with the jarringly cynical. The unifying point is her voice, which is comforting and inviting, but which also makes you wary of its bite. If there is an overall theme to the record, it would seem to be that even though war is all around us, there is still plenty of time to sing our song, spray a little graffiti around to prove we were here, and hope for the best. With Marry Me, St. Vincent proves to be much more than just alive and well.