actor (st. vincent)
I liked this album so, so much. I love St. Vincent. Annie's voice is beautiful, the lyrics are intriguing, and the music is really fantastic- a fusion of sweet fairy-tale strings and woodwinds and heavier, darker instruments. It's not just the instruments, but the overall tone as well, that fuses and surprises at the intersections of sweet and dark. I've read some about her making of the album- the influence of Disney films, trying to score some of her favorite scenes, and building songs from the beautiful orchestral fragments she came up with… and that's basically the effect of the album.
Everything on the album is either good or great, nothing disappoints. The great tracks… “The Strangers” opens the album with the perfect chemistry of Disney swell and subtle darkness. “Laughing with a Mouth Full of Blood” is sweetly whimsical. “Marrow” is one of the darker, more intense songs and really captures that Disney/darkness duality perfectly… it opens with these beautiful, birdlike flutes, and later this sound recurs with a heavy guitar beat, in a way that I really love. “The Party” alternates between a nice, subdued piano jam and this beautiful refrain. My only complaint- having heard this live, I loved the acapella fade-out, the album version seems a little overproduced when it should be soaring. Speaking of soaring… “Just The Same But Brand New” might be my favorite track. It makes me feel like Iike I'm seeing the stars at night for the first time, millions of them, in a wide open field.
Simply a beautiful, fantastic, compellingly layered album.
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