release date: Apr. 26, 2024
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: St. Vincent
label: Total Pleasure - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Hell Is Near" - 2. "Reckless" (live) - 3. "Broken Man" (live) - 4. "Flea" - 6. "Violent Times" - 7. "The Power's Out" - 8. "Sweetest Fruit"
8th studio album by St. Vincent follows three years after the generally acclaimed Daddy's Home (May 2021), though, I'm not a fan of that. Actually, The Nowhere Inn (Sep. 2021) is filed as her most recent release but being a soundtrack it doesn't officially belong amongst her studio releases, although, it's more than an ordinary soundtrack being music to afilm with script by Annie Clark and starring Clark herself.
Anyway, this new album unfolds as her so far most electrified and angry album to date. In that regard, it's a warm welcome back to Annie Clark the guitarist; however, in the case of St. Vincent things are not meant to be and cannot be categorised in terms of rock-standards. Clark is a modern musician with a musically schooled background and she is probably one of the most non-conformist acts around, who grabs stylistic impulses like you would pick books on a shelf. Sometimes she builds on a predominantly psychedelic rock tradition but it doesn't take more than a listen to two to three songs here and you have soul, blues, r&b, contemporary pop, indie pop and a whole bunch of other influences blended in.
So what's it like then? Well, critics can't be wrong, can they? They all like it. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian calls it "...the unmasking of a great American songwriter" and claims the album is 'packed with ideas' and yet he also points to the impression that's it contains 'shape-shifting music'. Undoubtedly, the album sounds like the music from no one else - in that regard, St. Vincent is a guarantee of unique music. The other side of that coin is that it sounds exactly like St. Vincent. Some songs build on a stereo-typical matrix of arrangements and of chorus-structures that we've heard about seven times before. Perhaps, critics focus on lyrics and narrative ideas? It's never enough when dealing with music. For me, it leaves me slightly indifferent. No track in particular stand out as one I really enjoy and return to, but yes, it's generally good, and it's better than a lot of other albums, but it's not great. What I really like about it, is the absence of strong influence from one Mr. David Byrne. Apparently, it has taken twelve years to get further into her own soundscape, and that's the most positive, I hear on All Born Screaming, which basically sounds like Clark's continued journey following her best album Mercy from 2011.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com, NME, Slant 4,5 / 5, Mojo, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,8 / 10, 👉Exclaim! 3,5 / 5, 🙀The Guardian 5 / 5, stars ]
[ digital album may be purchased here ]
