St. Vincent

St. Vincent – Marry Me

Besides lending her robed frame and skilled guitar hands to the Polyphonic Spree’s oversized ensemble, Annie Clark more resembles her other touring mate, Sujan Stevens, with her richly orchestrated debut album, recorded under her moniker, St. Vincent. A multi-instrumentalist and equipped with a voice that can sound as warm as Feist or as dangerous as Tori Amos, what she captures on record shifts continually. The French horns on “Human Racing” seduces with AM pop luster, where the brilliant indie-pop opener “Now Now” eventually explodes into a full noise collision of guitar shreds, an orchestration build-up and a kid-like chorus. But this says nothing of her lyrical talent for composing brief poetic visuals that bite with humor or lilt with cryptic sincerity. “With a heart like a socket/that I can plug into at will./And will you guess, when I’ll come around next/I hope your open sign is blinking still,” she flirts on Marry Me, continuing slyly with “let’s do what Mary and Joseph did, without the kid.”