Actor

Oklahoma-born artist recorded the sophomore attempt

The US citizen Annie Clark, well-known on the scene as St. Vincent, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, she was brought up in Texas. The artist studied in the Musical College of Berkley, which is in Boston, Massachusetts. After her study, the multi-instrumentalist recorded the EP Ratsliveonnoevilstar with her former group mates and went touring with several famous indie-rock bands. However, later St. Vincent thought of the possibility of her solo career. It is a fact, which it is really hard to get to the top in the world of today’s musical world, especially if you take no support. Nevertheless, the debut album by St. Vincent with the daring title Marry Me became a real indie-pop-rock hit of 2007. Soon after the release, the performer headed on a lengthy support tour. Getting no sufficient rest after the tense touring schedule, St. Vincent sat down to a new long-play. She made a colossal work as a musician, recording the majority of the instruments for her new album. Finally, the marvelous release Actor is ready. Two songs were already made available for the listeners, while the disc itself is sure to amuse those, who appreciated the previous full-length by the artist. Soon after the release of Actor, hard-working St. Vincent headed on a new loaded support tour around the USA.

The magnificent voice of St. Vincent is the album’s center

The disc opens with the single The Strangers, which prepared the listeners for the release of Actor. It is a wonderful baroque-pop song, framed with the classical choir singing and delicate, highly impressive vocals of the artist. Overall, the tendencies of the new album by St. Vincent include more aggressive and rock arrangements, which are at the same time as baroque-pop as they only can be, infectious beats and a stomping guitar. All these features are centered on the strong and flexible voice of St. Vincent. The track The Neighbors has a deceitfully plain tune, while in this song the artist shows herself as the masterful and experienced orchestration-maker – the unexpected bursts of guitar sound and splashes of organ play along with the energetic drums make The Neighbors one of the most memorable events on the album. The single Actor Out Of Work is an energetic guitar pop rock composition, which has a fragile melody at the same time. The powerful track Black Rainbow is sure to be a breath-keeping experience for the majority of the listeners, while the abrasive guitar sound of Marrow will cheer you with its freshness and a contrasting to the arrangement praiseworthy tender tune. The album features several beautiful ballads, which were the main decoration of St. Vincent’s debut. For example, the lullaby track The Party became a wonderful piano augment of the disc, while the Eastern melody-driven The Bed will amuse you with its mysterious atmosphere.

St. Vincent makes her own way

The new album titled Actor by St. Vincent became a new step in her brief, but bright career. It also became the artist’s triumph in producing, arrangement and in her singing-songwriting activity. It is hard to relate Actor to any particular genre, and it goes right about all the creativity of this prolific artist. It may be rather called the mix of baroque pop, rock and indie music, and we can say that St. Vincent stands together with such performers as Beck and PJ Harvey, but it does not make her similar to them. It is obvious that St. Vincent has such a unique quality in her soul as the protest against the stereotypes of the today’s show business, and tries to ruin them to the basement in each her record. She does not fallow the borrowed from somebody success formulae, she makes the one of her own. Her approach works, as we can see from the glory of her debut Marry Me and the more sophisticated album Actor. It makes us feel admiration for this artist. Lately, St. Vincent started to use the word “magic”, describing both her creativity and music all in all. Having listened to Actor, you realize that the new work by the performer is better described by such adjectives as “magical” and “mesmerizing”. Well, what else can make a girl, who looks from the cover of Actor with such a soulful and dreaming gaze somewhere outside the picture?