St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, is little known to many as the guitarist for the Polyphonic Spree and also as the guitar player in Sufjan Stevens’s touring band. Annie creates quite an eclectic solo album here, as Marry Me overflows with an abundance of great songs spanning the pop spectrum, dipping into folk, blues, jazz and whatever she can get her hands on. In the end, the album is quite the interesting listen.
From the opening track, "Now, Now," she shows her penchant for creating catchy songs with eclectic beats. Amazingly, on this album she plays all the instruments, a statement that is always impressive. But more impressive here is her ability to not only put together a good song, but an album’s worth. On the album’s title track, she slows it down, singing a sweet song in her sweet soprano voice with some orchestral arrangements.
I watched a YouTube live video of Annie’s "Your Lips Are Red" and was shocked to find out that she was performing the song all by her lonesome. She was singing, playing the guitar, and pounding a kick drum with her foot. This live version sounds as intense and brilliant as the version on her album. It’s always a plus for me; you’d be surprised how rare it is to hear a good album and see the band pull it off live. But seeing a solo artist playing more than one instrument at once live and sounding as good as a band is just that much more impressive.
With an eclectic mix of pop songs that push their limits, St. Vincent is as good, if not better, than the diverse musicians she has worked with and one of the better female solo artists I have heard recently who writes catchy songs with sometimes-sentimental, sometimes-sarcastic lyrics and music that swoons around styles.
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