Actor

Sounding more like a musical experiment of Baron Frankenstein proportions than a cohesive record, St. Vincent’s (AKA Texas’ Annie Clark) second offering is a mutated beast in many ways. Album opener ‘The Strangers’ starts all light and fluffy, almost dreamlike, but by the end discordant guitars howl at the moon turning the song into something else altogether. It’s hard to settle into Actor. Just when you think you’ve got her figured out, Clark hits us with Nine Inch Nails-like industrial noise coupled with the Sugar Cubes’ acid laced nightmares (‘Marrow’) and the whole record is as unconventional as they come. While we applaud her musical tightrope walk, as a listener, the odd time signatures and kitchen sink instrumentation can get a little tiresome.

Key Track: ‘Marrow’