release date: Feb. 25, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,92]
producer: John Congleton
label: Loma Vista Recordings - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Birth in Reverse" - 6. "I Prefer Your Love"
4th studio album by St. Vincent - her first on Loma Vista. John Cogleton is producer as he was co-producer on her previous two albums - here, he is fully in charge.
The album follows Strange Mercy from 2011, however, Annie Clark made the collaboration album Love This Giant with David Byrne in 2013, and that teamwork seems to have had its impact on Clark. Gone are the noise pop elements and instead her music has become more orchestrated - less simplistic.
Annie Clark is such a gifted woman and does so well on her own. Her previous solo releases all document this. Sadly, Mr. Byrne has a bad habit of infecting talented artists - he was eager to jump on the Arcade Fire train as soon as that took off - he had it slowed or derailed, and he then put his live-less hands around Annie and persuaded her into collaborative work. That experience [read: Byrne's mere presence] sadly disturbed Annie so much that her music here seems infected by ideas of a [parasitic] lesser artist. Annie, please get back on track!
Yes, that may sound harsh, but I never have been a fan of Mr. Byrne, and it's quite obvious how her music and style has changed on this. I find it less originally sounding - as an attempt to satisfy a mainstream audience, which isn't necessarily just bad, but Clark's distinct sound and style is what makes her interesting, and that is almost gone here. "Rattlesnake" sounds more like Björk, and the album's highest ranked single "Digital Witness" (track #17) is a tedious Talking Heads-like [yea, yawn!] composition that reflect no originality whatsoever.
Regardless, my objection, the album was well-received by the press and fans as it became her best selling album to date reaching number #12 in the US and number #21 in the UK. Several music magazines (including NME, Slant and musicOMH) put it on top of their end-list of 2014.
Although, it's not as poor and indifferent as her collaboration work with Byrne, I find it her least interesting solo album to date.
[ allmusic.com, NME, Rolling Stone, Spin 4 / 5, The Guardian 5 / 5 stars ]
