ALBUM REVIEW: All Born Screaming – St. Vincent
Annie Clark – aka indie artist ST. VINCENT – is on her seventh solo album, All Born Screaming, but in one way, it’s a rebirth of the musician. Though she’s produced albums before, this is her first self-produced body of her own work, and with that comes a level of control – as well as a danger of over-indulgence as the editing reins are no longer held by a third party able to tone down any maximalist tendencies. Fortunately, ST. VINCENT and All Born Screaming don’t suffer from that at all, and instead Clark has created a taut, oft dreamy, work of indie pop that celebrates minimalism as much as it does her oft-lauded guitar playing.
Opener Hell Is Near thrums into being carefully, ethereal vocals gliding through the mix before soft drums and an almost country twang to the guitar phrasing enters. Reckless offers a similar serenity, though veers a little into plodding territory. Fortunately, ST. VINCENT is adept with twisting a song just at the right moment, as a thundering crescendo around three minutes in unveils a far bigger sonic world that All Born Screaming continues to explore.
Where on previous albums Clark has adopted various personas, here the theme is, as she’s remarked herself, far more raw and essential both lyrically and musically. Stripping back the layers to reveal a troubled inner life, All Born Screaming often deals with grief; Reckless opens with its narrator seeing someone die, while Sweetest Fruit laments the untimely loss of pop extraordinaire SOPHIE (“My angel climbed the roof to get a better view of the moon” is a particularly cutting moment); it’s deeply introspective throughout, the characters she paints lyrical portraits of done by her own unmasked self rather than any of her previous characters.
Musically, it’s fascinating as an insight into her creative mind. Flea dives from big kick drum electro pop to morose indie pop, her guitar phrasing guiding the listener down convoluted pathways in her mind. Big Time Nothing is taut, barely minutes and has a propulsive, throbbing bass line that Clark croons over and throws funk guitar into the mix. It’s an odd change from the brash loudness of Flea but one that acts as a palette cleanser before Violent Times, a brass-backed number that feels like it’s witnessed through the haze of a speakeasy. The title track is another left turn, as Clark allows herself indulgence for the first time as it shifts and turns throughout its seven minutes from twee math-pop guitars to a pulse-pounding conclusion.
All Born Screaming covers a hell of a lot of ground. Its furtive darting between NINE INCH NAILS-inspired industrial pop, starkly minimalist indie and more is sustained and kept coherent through ST. VINCENT’s own shapeshifting nature over previous albums. That said, with Clark’s latest album stripping away the personas from before, it firmly places her own songwriting nous as the focus – and with All Born Screaming she’s crafted an album that shows a whole new side to her, and is a bold new vision of ST. VINCENT.
Rating: 8/10
All Born Screaming is out now via Virgin Music.
Like ST. VINCENT on Facebook.