St. Vincent: Actor
Label: 4AD
St. Vincent (Annie to her family, the Clarks) returned this year to prove her debut was no fluke. On Actor, Clark leads with her cute, pointy chin, updating the ambitiously composed songs that made her Marry Me, one of 2007’s surprise hits. Several of the songs on Actor have a curiously unresolved quality about them—not unfinished but rather just vaguely unsettled (not the same as unsettling, mind you)—that set off winning tunes like “Actor Out of Work” and the charming (not just in its title) “Laughing with a Mouth of Blood” marvelously. There’s plenty here for indie-sophisticate slow-dancing, as well as swooning and song-dissecting. The indie-rock discussion in 2009 must involve this fascinating, self-contained artist. (M.L. Thrope)
