St Vincent - s/t (25 February 2014)

Really excited for this album.

This is one of the better songs I've heard of hers. Still kind of spoiled by gimmicky production featuring grating, unnecessary distortion (this seems to be her thing and it's pretty much a deal breaker for me since I find most of her songwriting not bad but not exceptional, either). It's a sound that probably won't age well. Not exactly a groundbreaking set of chord changes, but a nice tune. Just too bad about the production. She lost some points after the John Barry You Only Live Twice ripoff song a few years back, too. Why would someone do that? I guess it's a step up from yelling over a slowed down Curtis Mayfield record.

This is out there now. I like it a lot for the most part, takes a dip in the last few tracks (second last track in particular is really bad).

I'm actually a little bit in shock at how incredible this album is. I do love her three albums so far but this one just seems like it's in a different league and is very close to being a perfect record. Prince Johnny, Regret and Psychopath are my early favourites but every song has something really great about it.

i just listened to the previews on itunes and it seems more accessible and immediate than anything i remember from her.

It's definitely a lot easier to take in than Strange Mercy. It's just a really beautiful record.

But yeah, big fan of the major-label-accessible version of St. Vincent in general.

don't get me wrong. i like every album she's released (and -- on an unrelated point -- i am transfixed by her beauty).

Same here Daniel.

Not a fan of "Every Tear Disappears" or "Bring Me Your Loves," but the other 9 probably make up my fave record of hers so far. She could stand to vary the sonics a bit more on the next one, though.

Every Tear Disappears is the weakest song but I still like it. At the moment I Prefer Your Love has become my favourite and could be the best song she's done.

Rattlesnake reminds me of Post-era Bjork, for some reason. So far I'm enjoying this record more than I thought I would (and I loved both Actor and Strange Mercy).

I can't wait to hear this! I really enjoyed watching her play songs at the new york fashion show. She's got some cool choreography going on too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgZWGJZHkGM

i love watching her play guitar.

is this song in mime

OK... wow. Because musically that song is interesting and dynamic and both not what I would have expected from St Vincent, but also weirdly *completely* totally sounding distinctively her...

But her STAGE PRESENCE, holy shit! She really has been hanging out with David Byrne too much, and he has been rubbing off on her in the best possible way. She's mesmerising and amazing, and yeah, she always has been fantastic to watch, but I love the theatricality and the "mime" and her expression while she plays/dances is absolutely the best.

Alright, I was going back and forth as to whether I should get this album due to mixed reactions, but, um, YES. Need more of this.

Choreography is an art I wish I understood more.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/swans-finish-next-two-hour-epic-to-be-kind-with-st-vincent-20140214

Can't wait for this record (except I can, otherwise I'd download it and I don't want to hear it til I've bought it), and she's playing in Bristol ON MY BIRTHDAY.

OMG OMG when is your birthday again?

(I have to go to Bristol soon, maybe it's the same weekend? I hope so, because ironically it is the weekend that Interpol are playing in my hood and I'm glad of an excuse not to go.)

May 15th.

Ha, that video is great!!

the woah-oh-oh-oh-ohs of "prince johnny" have been swirling around in my head all morning

Streaming in full at The Guardian now:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/feb/18/st-vincent-st-vincent-album-stream

ty voodoo chili. this is great.

prince johnny is epic. best, most immediate song she's done; the backing choir and the build to the chorus is fantastic.

Streams are so damn unreliable on this connection, but wwooooo, excited to hear this!

(Oh, this is the song from the jerky-dance video and it's even AWESOMER and jerkier on record.)

streaming @ NPR, too. and this is getting "mixed reactions" you say?!? from whome? it's fucking fantastic is what it is, 2014's first off-the-line aoy contender afaic. varied, risky, catchy, clever and addictive as hell. immediately wanted to go back and replay like every single song (but restrained myself in favor of the "album experience").

and yeah, i'm suprised by the relatively low level of anticipatory slavering itt. thought she was a designated local hero. did that half-boring byrne collaboration glaze everyone's eyes? this is at least a thousand times better. kate bush people need to be on this.

you did not just... RMDE RMDE and KMT and SMH no.

I'm so into the synth-bass farts on this record. She's always had an amazing sonic ear, but this record is just so... "oooooh, what *IS* that odd noise, I ~lyke~ it?"

2014's first off-the-line aoy contender afaic. varied, risky, catchy, clever and addictive as hell.

― contenderizer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014

it's v good, but 2014's only album-of-the-year contender so far? hm, no.

• tinariwen's emmaar
• sun kil moon's benji
• katy b's little red
• childbirth's it's a girl! (okay, this one's a little idiosyncratic; still . . . )

I liked the Byrne collab but was a bit disappointed by her last album Strange Mercy which had a couple of good moments but mostly just felt a bit awkward. Really love Actor from 2009 though. What I've heard from this so far sounds great though. Really think she's a fantastic "rock star" in an old fashioned kind of sense.

She's always had an amazing sonic ear, but this record is just so... "oooooh, what *IS* that odd noise, I ~lyke~ it?"

yeah, also like the fact that there isn't a clear palette of such sounds that she's working from. each song seems composed of the pieces necessary for it, regardless of how little they might have in common with the tones & timbres employed elsewhere. not that she doesn't have a cache of go-to favorites, especially where the guitars are concerned...

speaking of byrne as an influence, couldn't help but hear digital witness' "people turn the tv on it looks just like a window" as a lost and unrecorded talking heads line, right down to the faux-naive delivery.

It's February, can we stop all this "album of the year contender!" nonsense? In fact can we stop it every month. Inane and idiotic.

"people turn the tv on it looks just like a window"

There's a Byrne song on the Byrne/Vincent album all about TV which I thought was a bit trite and anachronistic at the time.

it's v good, but 2014's only album-of-the-year contender so far? hm, no.

tinariwen's emmaar
sun kil moon's benji
katy b's little red
childbirth's it's a girl!

need to hear that tinariwen, but i've never been a kozelik or katy b fan, so i wouldn't expect my possibles list to overlap all that much w yours. other favorites so far:

warpaint - warpaint
against me! - transgender dysphoria blues
cynic - kindly bent to free us
behemoth - the satanist

It's February, can we stop all this "album of the year contender!" nonsense? In fact can we stop it every month. Inane and idiotic.

― the drummer is a monster (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:52 AM (14 minutes ago)

your face is inane and idiotic

I liked the Byrne collab but was a bit disappointed by her last album Strange Mercy which had a couple of good moments but mostly just felt a bit awkward. Really love Actor from 2009 though. What I've heard from this so far sounds great though. Really think she's a fantastic "rock star" in an old fashioned kind of sense.

― doglato dozzy (dog latin)

It's much less awkward than Strange Mercy. Most of it is really instant and catchy.

I Prefer Your Love has just taken over for me. One of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard.

As for album of the year contenders. This is ahead of Wild Beasts and Katy B for me, by quite a long way. Yeah I know it's early to say that but it will be take a lot for something to beat it. It's a perfect record. Up there with When Saints Go Machine and iamamiwhoami as the best albums I've heard this decade, yeah I went there.

xx Relax Sick, it's just another way of saying he really likes it. Is it OK if I just say it's the best album I've heard so far this year?

It's February, can we stop all this "album of the year contender!" nonsense? In fact can we stop it every month. Inane and idiotic.

― the drummer is a monster (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:52 AM (14 minutes ago)

your face is inane and idiotic

― contenderizer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:08 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Generally, yeah.

I just hate this language of discourse; every idiot with a twitter account pronouncing "the new Nut Sniffers record is my album of the year already!" every five minutes through January and February as if they give away a personal prize. It's reductive and silly! Just say you like something a lot and why, don't set up some kind of arbitrary pseudo-spreadsheet! Hate it hate it hate it.

x-post: that's preferable, DL, certainly, but I just hate the absolutist terminology we all fall into. I feel like it gets worse ever year.

I'm generally down on telling people how they're allowed to express their enthusiasm.

Like I can even decide what the ~best album this year~ is going to be until I've seen what Interpol's haircuts are doing on the record they're currently finishing!

Stupid stream cut out after 3 tracks and I can't get back on. It's probably my connection, not the Grauniad but still irritating. ;_;

I really liked the awkwardness of Strange Mercy; I think she does "awkward" really beautifully. But then, I thought Love This Giant was one of the albums of 2012. The whole brass thing really did it for me.

What a disaster for Nut Sniffers.

Nut Sniffers album isn't all that imo. Emperor's new nuts.

Hate is such a strong word.

I really liked the awkwardness of Strange Mercy; I think she does "awkward" really beautifully.

Yes, oh yes, I wouldn't want it any other way although Strange Mercy just didn't work terribly well for me. I'd rather have 'awkward' than having the edges planed off her music though. I'm hoping this new one strikes a happy medium.

I'm generally down on telling people how they're allowed to express their enthusiasm.

― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:19 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The thing is, it's pretty much exactly this instinct that's driving me mad; I feel like it's very limiting in terms of how people express their enthusiasm, because it's such an overwhelming presence as a metric to express that enthusiasm. What gets in an end-of-year list? Is that the only way we understand quality? It just seems spreadsheety and data-y and horrible to me. I literally know people who keep a spreadsheet of all the records they listen to every year and mark them all individually, and that just seems absolutely horrible to me. I appreciate it might be a useful 'tool', but uergh. How do you even know how to rank things? Put them in order? Assign a score? What if you change your mind? What if affections fade or grow? At the end of the year do you just stop listening to that year's records and start again? What does that say about music?

I don't mark records (except for work, obvs) but I do keep a list because it reminds me what I've been listening to if, for example, a friend asks me what I'd recommend, because otherwise my mind goes blank. Plus I always need an EOY list for ILM and other places anyway so why not have one that evolves throughout the year? I change my mind all the time, like everyone else. To me it's not about data or grading or suggesting that one album is measurably better than the next - it's more about getting on top of a vast amount of music and not feeling exhausted by it.

great stuff here.

I still, pointedly, get everything I like physically, and I keep all the new stuff in a pile together - two piles, actually; one for brand new releases, one for back catalogue stuff picked up at random. That's my list, I guess.

CHEERS CHARLIE

we also need a veggie sub rate in order to understand just how many veggie subs she ate! what if the appropriate veggie sub rate that she's referencing is 60 veggie subs per second?! that would be an award worthy number of veggie subs! give her the golden sub!

you folks are harsh

sigh

high standards for the people we love is all

Thanks for reminding me of all the reasons I generally tend to avoid ILM these days, guys. I really needed that.

You're welcome!

I am fine with her not following fgti's personal rules.

my personal rule is that if you normally save shit for your therapist you should continue

These fucking dumb personal rules are for myself, not for anyone else. I suppose it'd be easier to have same conversation about a more-roundly-despised big box indie act.

@ katherine I've been taught to "save it for therapy" most of my life, but I've found it ultimately more beneficial to maintain a social circle that is comfortable with sharing their anxieties

I am not talking about St. Vincent specifically, I am talking about the ugliness of when indie-gets-big-business shows, I have literally had this exact conversation with all possible indictable acts, with responses from "I know how you feel, 200-to-400 people is a perfect-sized crowd and I've been eager to dial it back" to "I don't care what the audience wants, full steam ahead".

Generally I've been "I'm OK, you're OK" about small-business, big-business, it's all good, sell tickets play shows. But reading things like Ian Cohen describing small business models as being rooted in "indie defeatism", to this statement which seems to posit that the current-and-future reality for many indie acts ($250-a-show, Motel 6) is something to be overcome, left behind... it is extremely frustrating to read. Like I wrote e-mails to [band] and [band] when they hired lighting techs and/or monitor engineers to say "don't do it" and they did anyway and lost money on those tours.

i am glad that she is getting paid for what she does and hope that she enjoys every sandwich

pomplamoose have not made it yet

katherine: sick burn on charles mingus there

St. Vincent ‏@st_vincent 1h1 hour ago

S&M&M'S.
0 replies 322 retweets 696 favorites

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_S_bWCXEAA6e7P.jpg

Stereogum ‏@stereogum 11m11 minutes ago

Hear @St_Vincent interview Gang Of Four's Andy Gill http://bit.ly/1FbGwvo

i should know better than to believe internet celeb couple rumours (remember when that frank ocean x miguel rumour got some traction?) but i'm so into the idea of annie & delevingne being gfs

another new track:

http://pitchfork.com/news/58251-st-vincent-shares-teenage-talk-written-for-hbos-girls/

Is it more rigid robot funk?

St. Vincent's Mixtape Delivery Service

A big thanks to everyone who tuned into the first episodes of St. Vincent's Mixtape Delivery Service on Beats1. And thank you to everyone who wrote in with your stories. I sat with a margarita (or two) and my trusty PC (joke, Apple!) and read each of them. I was so moved and wished I could make one for every single person. Alas, time is unmerciful.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that a second round of submissions will be accepted this coming Tuesday, July 14 at 12pm EST/9am PST for one hour. Click HERE to submit.
http://ilovestvincent.com/mixtape/

Xx
ac
(To access previous mixtape playlists and exclusive show content click HERE
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/)

Hey St Vincent fans - any recommendations for a newbie to her stuff? I've enjoyed scattered tracks like "Surgeon", "Cheerleader" and "Prince Johnny".

she's got a new one coming out this year, i think. maybe wait and see how it is?

honestly the s/t was the first of hers i've liked and i LOOOOOOOOVE it, so maybe that?

i thought the s/t was more uneven than "strange mercy" but that the highs were higher.

Actor was my gateway. But they're all good.

her last few records are quite different and yet...somehow extremely the same. I'd like to hear her loosen up her arrangements a bit for diversity's sake.

there's a sterility to her records that makes them not stand up to a whole lot of relistening for me even as I admire the craft

otm. I thought s/t was great all the way through, but its consistency makes me more likely to play individual tracks than the whole album

I think all of them after the first one are amazing. The first one is really good but just short of amazing.

Actor is my favourite but I do love all four of her albums in different ways. I think the self titled might be the best introduction to her.

I didn't get into her until "Prince Johnny" convinced me to give the s/t a shot. I liked it quite a bit and still need to go back and listen to the earlier records.

Also, "Teenage Talk," her one-off single from 2015, is really great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7IYosdzUX8

Actor and the S/T album are both great. Not so much a fan of Strange Mercy (other than 'Cruel' which is a great song).

Actor > Strange Mercy > Love This Giant > s/t

never listened much to Marry Me

but it's all great, highy recommend seeing her live if you get the chance

my fav song is the party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9L3D1w8KcY

also this is a good watch if fx you feel like a lump

"Teenage Talk" is the best thing she's ever done, hope album 5 sounds similar (also hope album 5 comes out this year). s/t is her most cohesive album, imo (in the minority that like it better than Strange Mercy).

Niels - That's a great track