ST. VINCENT — 'MASSEDUCTION' (LOMA VISTA)
More than any other current recording artist that comes to mind, Tulsa-born art-rocker St. Vincent turns a new album into an event.
I don’t mean the usual albumrelease hoopla like television performances and social media blasts, although those are certainly involved.
I’m talking about a full-blown artistic re-imagining that includes the development of a new storytelling persona (on 2011’s “Strange Mercy,” it was a bored housewife on pills; on 2014’s eponymous effort, it was a near-future cult leader; and on “MASSEDUCTION,” it’s a “dominatrix at the mental institution”), a new visual aesthetic (in keeping with the album’s sexy-meets-absurdist themes, the new one boasts bright color blocks, latex knee boots and slinky leopard-print catsuits) and in this case, the bonus of a tongue-incheek series of video clips scripted by “Portlandia’s” Carrie Brownstein.
The best part is that the singer, songwriter and guitarist who was born Annie Clark always makes unique and virtuosic music that can hold up to that kind of elaborately self-generated hype — and “Masseduction” is her best and most accessible collection yet. Considering 2014’s “St. Vincent” won the Grammy for best alternative album, that’s saying quite a bit.
After showcasing her formidable skills as a guitarist on her self-titled effort, the Oklahoma-born and Texas-bred musician started her “MASSEDUCTION” rollout with the surprising first single “New York,” a wistful, f-bomb-spiked piano ballad spotlighting her satiny mezzo-soprano.
She followed it with a pair of cleverly worded synthesizer- and drum machine-driven satires with “Los Ageless” and “Pills.” And that’s more or less how the whole album goes, veering unexpectedly from the synthy avante garde poetry of “Hang on Me” and “Sugarboy” to the almost painfully stripped-down acoustic ballad “Happy Birthday, Johnny” to the gorgeously tragic plea-with-strings “Slow Disco."
While many recording artists this year paid musical homage to the 2016 deaths of David Bowie and Prince, few did it more memorably or modishly than St. Vincent. Her urgent glamrock tour title track “Fear the Future” calls to mind the stylings of the late Goblin King, while the album’s title track practically pulsates with a sexy funk sound that The Purple One surely would have appreciated.
Coproduced by St. Vincent and pop guru Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Pink, Lorde), “MASSEDUCTION” (yes, it’s pronounced “Mass Seduction”) is her most personal album yet, but it feels relatable rather than self-indulgent in its musings about loss, love and loneliness.