Album Review: St. Vincent, All Born Screaming

On her previous records, St. Vincent has often handled elements of production, but All Born Screaming marks the first album she had entirely helmed herself. In the search for her own sonic vocabulary, the singer has crafted a raw but sonically perfect record.

Working across her own Compound Fracture studio in LA, Electric Lady in New York and Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago, St. Vincent – aka Annie Clark – has tagged the album as post-plague pop, immersed as it is in metaphorical heaven and hell.

Stuff may get pretty dark, but damn it sounds good. To accompany her, Clark has enlisted a posse of heavy hitters – including Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and Cate Le Bon – who more than deliver the swag. Featuring ‘70s and ‘80s analogue synths, a fistful of guitars and stacks of dynamite drums, All Born Screaming is quite the musical package.

It looks unreal too, with both the striking sleeve and video for single ‘Broken Man’ the result of collaboration with conceptual artist Alex Da Corte. A visit to the Prado in Madrid for a peek at Goya’s diabolical Black Paintings provided further visual inspiration.

The album contains a rake of highlights, including Grohl’s tour de force drumming on ‘Broken Man’; the scuzz-pop of ‘Flea’; the Bond-theme-in-waiting ‘Violent Times’; and the Angelo Badalamenti-inspired ‘The Power’s Out. It’s another hugely impressive effort from the irrepressible St. Vincent.

8/10