This year really has been an embarrassment of riches, music wise – after a slow start, the new releases starting popping out in Spring, and since then we really have been spoiled for choice. I could have easily chosen to review the Billie Eilish album, or the Waxatachee, or the Yaya Bey, and that’s just off the top off my head.
But there are two albums that, so far, have stood head and shoulders above the rest for me. The first of those is Vampire Weekend’s, which must be one of the finest collections of songs they’ve ever released. The second of those two albums is the latest album from St Vincent aka Annie Clark, her seventh.
I do so with quite a bit of trepidation – because as regular listeners/readers will know, I chose St Vincent’s divisive last album, Daddy’s Home, for a previous blog, and it’s fair to say that it went down like a bucket of warm sick. So I nearly didn’t. But then I thought what the blog and the pod is about, and that’s to communicate our love for music – and well, I REALLY love this music.
Though I really enjoyed Daddy’s Home sleazy 70s shtick, I can see why it didn’t land with some people. Annie Clark is unashamedly an art rock musician – she enjoys shapeshifting between albums and using different personas and is pretty open about her debt to David Bowie on that front. I’m a huge, huge fan of hers (as is my partner Caroline, who adores her), but I’m also pretty comfortable in that art rock zone – I like my music with a bit of style, edge and persona. I also get that, for some people, that can be a huge turnoff – that ‘persona’ thing can feel like an affectation, and barrier in the way of the artists and the listener.
So why have I chosen All Born Screaming after the mauling Daddy’s Home got? Well, perhaps I am a sucker for punishment. But I think this album is really, really special. The first thing to note is that Clark has completely dispensed with the persona – this is just her. She’s said in a number of interviews that she was finding it tiring reinventing herself and that she also wanted to try and channel a bit more honesty about what she’s feeling. That’s also reflected in the sound of the album – she’s a huge Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails fan and you can really hear it in songs like Reckless:
The other thing I love about this record is that, despite its incredible musical breadth – grunge rock, electro pop, ballideering and even reggae (!), it flows SO well as a unified piece of work. If you want to talk about the Art of the Album, then surely this would merit a piece? What a journey this record goes on. Opening with the ethereal Hell is Near, and then segueing into the dark, foreboding and brilliant Reckless, and then – boom! – you get right between the eyes with the single Broken Man, surely one of the strongest out and out rock songs she’s ever made.
What I think is brave is that it doesn’t try and disperse the different styles across the record – more that you head from territory to territory, starting slowly then hitting the hard rocking trio of Broken Man, Flea and Big Time Nothing (another absolutely belter!). Violent Times moves the album into a whole new section with the Bowie-esque Violent Times followed but the gorgeous art-rock ballad The Power’s Out. Both explore Clark’s long held fascination with the ‘end of the world’ vibes in her lyrics.
And then the album does another extraordinary left turn. Sweetest Fruit is almost a straightforward pop banger (with a slight kink in it), but you can almost imagine it as a stadium ballad. If that doesn’t push the envelope enough, So Many Planets is a – I can’t believe I’m writing this – pop reggae track that is – I also can’t believe I’m writing this – an absolute triumph (others views are available of course, but I LOVE it!).
Things round up after only 41 brisk minutes and 10 songs with the funky and surprisingly chirpy All Born Screaming, that despite the dark lyrically content somehow feels like an upbeat climax to the album. And in that 41 minutes, Annie Clark has exhibited the full range of her incredible songwriting (and guitar playing, obvs) in a record that, for me, hangs together better than anything she’s ever done. I think it’s her finest hour. And that, brothers, is why I had to pick it for this month.
So, he says nervously….over to you…?
thisisnothappening.net 
Nice write up David, I know this is a very personal record for you.
I’m also really glad you chose it. It’s so easy to second guess – and we all would’ve loved Billie, because that really is a brilliant, tight, fun, interesting pop album (I’m looking at you, Bey and Tay Tay) – but you have to go with your gut.
I’ll definitely agree that I struggled with Daddy’s Home. I recent listen found it softened a little, but it’s not left a mark on me (Down, Melting Of The Sun and Play Your Way In Pain still stand out in that somewhat marmite record). When I first listened to All Born Screaming, it felt like it had shed so much of that artifice, and as a result, you have a really powerful, musically satisfying record that rocks from the start.
And unlike its predecessor, there’s really not much letting up. Not in terms of pace – because it isn’t just 10 balls-out rockers – but it’s a far more consistent, arresting listen that really doesn’t seem to have a weak track in it (more of that in a bit). Set across two sides (yes, I’m treating it as vinyl) Side A simply rocks. Hell Is Near does ease in, with louche, rubbery melodies but there’s synths and layers that feel a lot more interesting that Daddy’s Home’s 70s sleaze. In fact as you get into the album with each listen you realise that what’s a very direct set of songs is actually a subtle, layered beast, from the polyrhythms of the opener to Broken Man’s modular riff, and the synth wobble of Sweetest Fruit. If you want to understand this in much more detail, you need to listen to the Tape Notes pod because it’s a joy, to hear the effort and detail and also just how much St Vincent loved making this album.
But from Reckless through Broken Man, Flea and Big Time Nothing the album is pure unadulterated rock. And Annie’s vocals are clambering all over it in the most visceral and enjoyable way. It’s like she’s not weighed down by the concept any more, but free to be herself, and the result is pretty memorable. Side B has some subtler moves, with Violent Times – come on everyone, this is her Bond Theme, and boy does it sound fun – going all brass and bombast, and several switchbacks, with Power’s Out slow, wistful drone, giving way to Sweetest Fruit’s pop/rock template, with sax, and that brilliant two-tracked vocal an octave apart. It’s just so easy to enjoy.
I have really gone all over the place with So Many Planets. I couldn’t stand it at first. I then thought it was brilliant, and now I veer between that. But I salute the chutzpah to make the track. I hear a lot of David Byrne in this record, too, in some very good ways, even if white people doing reggae does still make me feel a bit funny (hi, Sting). The closer is a cracking record, seemingly ready to finish before coming back for an almost rave. I love how nuts it is. She sounds so free and released.
Is it a perfect record? What is? But I know I have really enjoyed each listen and I’m a lot of them in. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it this much and I’d even say it may be her best album. In a year of very stiff competition, it’s certainly stuck a big flag in the ground. I don’t suspect everyone will agree though.
I’m all over the shop with this. I hated Daddy’s home. It also caused me lots of stress trying to work out why I had such strong feelings about it. As per your write up David, I find the whole ‘reinvention’ from album to album as pure artifice. I don’t believe anything because its not consistent with anything that came before it. I guess this means that I want to get to know artists and this is basically impossible with Annie Clark. I guess this also means that me having such a strong reaction to her music says more about me than her … and I’m ok with that. We’re all growing.
So I was a little nervous coming into this album. Here’s a big list of things that I think or feel about this …
So there you go.
Ah, the advantage of going last. Many of my thoughts have been covered already (by Joey).
Hands up, although I really tried to get into the last album and listened to it far too many times it never connected for reasons which were covered on both the pod and blog.
The reality is that I struggle with an artist I can’t connect with. I get the whole conceptual thing but there still needs to be a connection. Plan B’s ‘The Defamation of Stictland Banks’ and Skyzoo’s ‘The Mind of a Saint’ are great examples of this. Sadly I continually wonder what the message and who the artist is when I listen to St. Vincent. There’s a lack of sincerity that I can’t get over.
For all the lows there are some highs. The production is really good on this album. Sonically it’s almost perfect. I’d take it so far to say that if the album is on in the background it’s enjoyable…. But I listen to a lot of music in the car and on my headphones. This lies the challenge.
For me the stand out track is ‘Sweetest Fruit’, ‘Big Time’ is the single and ‘Flea’ is great in the background until you listen to the lyrics.
I’ve given two St. Vincent albums a good go, I’m not sure they’re for me. Heaven forbid David gives the concept of three’s a charm a go….