CD Reviews

St. Vincent

Marry Me | Beggars Banquet

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 30, 2007

3.0 Stars

Annie Clark cut her teeth performing with progressive folk wunderkind Sufjan Stevens, art-rock hero Glenn Branca, and the psych-pop orchestra the Polyphonic Spree. So it’s no surprise that the 24-year old multi-instrumentalist covers a lot of musical ground on her debut album as St. Vincent. This disc is both violent and romantic, offering warm singer-songwriter torch songs and jagged avant-noise frays with large-hearted choral flourishes. Clark’s soaring soprano is capable of hitting a Billie Holiday swoon just as easily as a sinister incantation. The lyrics find her grappling with two contradictory needs: independence and an anchor. She longs for France and a husband in “Paris Is Burning,” a song set in the midst of a revolution, but her proposal — “Marry me, John/I’ll be so good to you/You won’t realize I’m gone” — has a sinister undercurrent. “Your Lips Are Red” is a haunted-house cabaret of unrelenting kickdrum, sudden piano crashes, and violin screeches, and “Paris Is Burning” melds her nimble finger-picking with programmed beats and mangled synth fills. Clark tempers the brash experimentalism with a few safely played jazzy ballads that display her range.

Boxed and ready
The cream of the season’s CD/DVD crop
Small-town gold
Sonya Kitchell strikes a major chord
Rae of light
England's next big export?
More

Topics: CD Reviews , Annie Clark , Billie Holiday , Pop and Rock Music , More

Comments

Add a Comment

ARTICLES BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY

LOS CAMPESINOS! | May 12, 2008
Hold on Now, Youngster . . . | Wichita/Arts & Crafts

GET WITH THE BROGRAM | April 22, 2008
The Constantines at T.T. the Bear's Place, April 18, 2008

THE POWER OF LOVE | March 19, 2008
A respected music critic contemplates Celine Dion and has a crisis of conscience

TRAVEL NEW ENGLAND! | October 31, 2007
...with a gas can and Brock Clarke’s wily novel

ST. VINCENT | July 30, 2007
Marry Me | Beggars Banquet

See all articles by: CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

ROLLED
Where’s the outrage over media mistreatment at the RNC?

PHOTOS: BULLS ON PARADE
"Security" at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN, September 3, 2008.

AMONG THE REPUBLICAN THUGS
Fear and pepper spray in St. Paul

I HAD AN ABORTION
Forty percent of American women have abortions by the time they're 45. I'm one of them.

SUBURBAN MOZART THAT SWINGS
Lexington Symphony at Cary Hall, Lexington, MA, September 13, 2008

RATE EXPECTATIONS
The Big Hurt: World-class criticism priced to move!

AMONG THE REPUBLICAN THUGS
Fear and pepper spray in St. Paul

MOBILE-HOME GAME
Cross the Mayor of Lansdowne Street at your peril, Sox fans: you might be jinxing your team in the process

ANNAPURNA
Unusual pan-Himalayan cuisine in the heart of Cambridge

THE ROTE STUFF
The meticulous mayhem of USAISAMONSTER

HOT TOPICS

Boston Symphony Orchestra , Kim Deal , Radiohead , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Harvard University , Kurt Weill , James Levine , James Robinson , John Harbison , Brian Eno