Written Before Listen
St Vincent is an American singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist that’s known to be a staple in modern guitar playing and songwriting. This is not an instance of being introduced to an artist here as St Vincent is someone who I got introduced to a couple of months before my reviewing “career”. I listened to her 2009 project “Actor” and her 2011 project “Strange Mercy”. Not really crawling back to “Actor” that often, “Strange Mercy” seemed to be a personal favorite of mine when it comes to modern Art Pop. Songs like “Cruel”, “Cheerleader” and “Surgeon” still remain to be some of the catchiest songs of that era and style. Although my enjoyment of “Strange Mercy” still remains, I never had the motivation to look into her future work. That is until today when she released “Daddy’s Home” this May. With that being said, let’s see how much she has developed overtime.
Influences
St Vincent isn’t usually one to stick to influences. On this album, she throws that away somehow basically going all the way back to the 70s. For example, the song “Live In The Dream” is basically her take on a Pink Floyd track but without the philosophical songwriting or ambitious production. It’s actually kind of ironic that she mentions Pink Floyds classic 1973 album on the following track as well. Luckily the rest of the album isn’t super derivative. There are definitely some nods to David Bowie,Fleetwood Mac, Funkadelic,George Harrison and more. It’s something I appreciate in modern music but I think its nothing more than an aesthetic and nothing super groundbreaking.
Instrumentation
Probably the strongest suit of the album. The instrumental palette on this album is extremely lush and surreal. With the inclusion of the usual rock instrumentation, there are a lot of electric pianos and saxophones that give it a very soulful aura to the record. There is also a unique addition of sitar all over this thing which makes this album way more unique than it already was. Maybe that is due to the heavyweight producer Jack Antonoff being a staple of the production on the album. Jack and Annie really goes out of his way to create something away from their comfort zones here.
Genre-Bending
One thing that impressed me about the album is the genre bending. There is no song on here that stick to one genre. St Vincent effortlessly blends Psychedelia, Soul,and Rock effortlessly with the occasional blend of pop as well. Does she achieve? Well, like always St Vincent is one eclectic son of a gun and A lot of the common elements of rock and R&B are blended into one tasty cocktail.
Themes
St Vincent is no stranger to good songwriting. Despite the tone of the album being super fun and sexy, a lot of the topics written are actually kind of deep. The opening track “Pay Your Way In Pain” is about living through an everyday struggle but its overshadowed by its super funky and sensual instrumental. “Daddy’s Home” has a similar situation where the topic is super personal and deep. The song is all about visiting your own dad in prison but everything that surrounds it is too overtly sassy and provocative for a subject like this. I think the topics are dove into pretty well but I think a majority of the tracks that dive into personal subjects like these could’ve gone the direction that “The Laughing Man” did, where the topic Is dark and the production backing it comes off emotional.
Cons
Like I said, I think the album is instrumentally beautiful. I think the genre bending is magnificent, but the songwriting isn’t the strongest that St Vincent has done. We all know that St Vincent can do so much better of a job than this. I also think the cohesion of the album is somewhat suffering and the humming interludes don’t do anything to help. I think St Vincent delivered one very consistent album but only a couple tracks stuck out to me as being lovable.
Verdict
St Vincent surely didn’t disappoint. With that being said though, out of the three St Vincent projects I’ve listened to, this is probably my least favorite. I don’t think it had the innocence and charm that “Actor” had or the complexity and density of a “Strange Mercy”. I’m not saying that she should repeat her previous works but I think the psychedelic vibe that she approached here needs more time to develop.
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