Album Review: Masseduction, St. Vincent

St. Vincent – Nom De Guerre of Annie Clark – is back after a three-year hiatus. The stresses and strains brought on by the success of her eponymously titled album of 2014, see her return both shaken and stirred. Not so much a confessional as an open diary, Masseduction is soundtracked by spiky new wave disco, featuring special guests Thomas Bartlett on piano, Kamasi Washington on saxophone, Jenny Lewis on vocals, and beat production from Sounwave. Greg Leisz and Rich Hinman provide pedal steel, while Tuck and Patti Andress contribute guitar and vocals respectively on select tracks.

Culled from snippets of song ideas jotted down between extracurricular activities , the album documents Clark’s life, love, friends and personal struggles. On ‘Pills’, the jaunty advertising-jingle chorus suggests there is a medication to meet every need, while on the title track she moans, “I can’t turn off what turns me on.” There then follows a guitar break that sounds like the noise that’s made when you stretch the lips of a balloon as it deflates. In a good way.

I’m loath to point out the Bowie influences, as I seem to hear him in almost everything these days, but they are there. No surprise then that the track ‘New York’ (trivia fact: there are at least 57 songs by other artists sharing the same title) was in some part influenced by his death last year. From the clattering nervous energy of ‘Fear The Future’ to the poignant anguish of ‘Slow Disco’, Masseduction is a fiercely personal record.
OUT OCTOBER 13