Strange Mercy is the beguiling new album from St. Vincent, set for release on 12 September 2011 via 4AD / Rhythmethod.
Strange Mercy is an unsparing examination of personal catharsis cloaked in some of the most sublime music of Annie Clark’s career, conjuring her impeccably vivid sound-scapes with brilliant producer/engineer John Congleton (Okkervil River, Wye Oak, Explosions in the Sky).
“Many of the songs are about wanting relief from pain, and searching high and low for release,” attests Clark. Such powerful emotions prompted — demanded, really — not just a bracingly candid lyrical style but a new musical approach.
Strange Mercy features very little of the baroque strings, woodwinds, and reeds that marked previous album Actor, and the grooves are sturdy, deep and beguiling. “I tried to keep the arrangements pretty simple and use just enough instrumentation to get the point across”. Consequently, Strange Mercy is a much more guitar-oriented album, filigreed with indelible hook-lines and ingenious rhythm parts.
Strange Mercy is what happens when the very picture of elegance and poise confronts turmoil and grief: You can either gaze in mute despair at those pieces lying on the floor, or you can make something beautiful, even transcendent out of them, but only by confronting yourself.
“Annie Clark, the musician otherwise known as St. Vincent, projects an aura of eerie perfection – beautiful, poised, good-humoured, and well-adjusted to a degree uncommon for rock performers, let alone ordinary people.” Pitchfork
“Her classy, silky vocals, like a prog-pop Judy Garland, are a guiding light through mazes of Of Montreal-ish synth-weirdness and Flaming Lips-esque odysseys.” NME
ST. VINCENT ‘Surgeon’
First track taken from the forthcoming album Strange Mercy
[mp3 download]
