St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION (5th album, October 13 2017)

since "nurse" i've neglected St. Vincent being a part of my musical life, not sure why. what a mistake, she is the best

On a couple of listens this seems really good; my fears from the singles are feeling a bit silly now.

I also thought it was Mass Education.

Has this record been ruined at the mastering stage or is she just addicted to shitty overcrowded midrange as an aesthetic choice?

In terms of the songs themselves this is probably her strongest record yet but she seems to pick up a new set of annoying mannerisms with every record, just as soon as she sheds the old ones. I want to like her more than I actually do.

She's definitely into overcrowded midrange. I just take that as her aesthetic now.

Her work is full of that sort of stuff, the jerky drums on one of the previous albums, and I'm given to understand she's an amazing guitarist but that guitar sound she's settled on is just horrible. I get the sense of an artist consistently trying to sound less talented than she is and it's just maddening - thinking about how much better the title track could have sounded if every element wasn't just piled on top of one other in the middle. I suspect it's also because her most obvious rock touchpoints (Bowie, Talking Heads in particular) really aren't mine at all.

Talking Heads and Bowie are both very synthetic-sounding for rock artists, too, which is obviously what she's been going for over the years. Part of me really likes her guitar tones, that buzzing modernity that almost sounds like she wants to be playing a synth instead. Even when she's overstuffing things (which is always, obviously) there's still loads of detail, which is what rescues it for me. And the way she layers things feels more sophisticated in terms of soundstaging than it could be; there's one song here with a really faint synth line or something over in the left channel (can't recall which after only two listens) that another artists would have inflated and moved more central.

Did you see what she was wearing on Jools Holland the other night? She's come a long, long way from the shapeless grey sweater thing and black curls on the cover of Marry Me, and it feels like she's doing the exact same thing with both image and sound.

she is an amazing guitarist but that only really comes across when you see her live, because recorded her stuff is so fucked with it doesn't really sound like a guitar (live it often doesn't either which is why it's cool but when you listen to an album these days, there are so many sounds that could be made by anything it's difficult to parse it out)

I have appreciated St Vincent albums before but not really cared all that much about going back to them after a cursory listen. I'm currently on "Pills" and this album is definitely going on my "faves of 2017" list and is making me a LOT more interested in her previous work.

Marrow from Actor was the tune that first made me go ‘oooh’, if that helps.

I have appreciated St Vincent albums before but not really cared all that much about going back to them after a cursory listen. I'm currently on "Pills" and this album is definitely going on my "faves of 2017" list and is making me a LOT more interested in her previous work.

― Marcus Hiles Remains Steadfast About Planting Trees.jpg (DJP),

This is where I'm at.

I'm impressed with how Lorde (remember her?) and St. Vincent have adapted Jack Antonoff's big beat approach to their own ends.

My immediate favorites are "Pills" and "Fear the Future".

Pills was my favourite and stuck in my head after one listen, but I like the album a lot less after listening on headphones.

The only drags are the slow ones at the end but I'm making my peace with them. "New York" is quite gorgeous.

i love her last few albums but am having trouble connecting to this one, i think it's a combo of the more "pop" approach, the "personal" lyrics, and the relative lack of guitar, which i guess are all interconnected. i feel like the prerelease press/rhetoric about it being written with all these slick professional songwriters and taking a more confessional approach conditioned me to not like it as much. i don't hate it but just not getting into it yet.

Good album.

This is the most excited I've been about her music since "Actor," not quite sure why yet.

"Lorde (remember her?) "

wow yeah, that album dropped off the face of the earth didn't it. It's good though.

Apparently the live show was terrible?

Lorde's live show? Or St Vincent's?

i can't imagine a bad st vincent live show. I didn't know lourde toured for this album.

don't know why I put a 'u' in there, but I imagine you're talking about the show she did recently in the UK which sounds...interesting.

I'm not a fan of St. Vincent live, tbh, or haven't been to this point. She's obviously hugely talented, but I've found her (no doubt per her intention) very affected.

Apparently she's just singing and playing guitar over backing tracks now?

Tonight, for 90 minutes, she stands with her guitar, static and alone, and sings along to studio-prepared mp3s that boom from the speakers, each one stripped of its lead vocal and lead guitar part so that Clark can re-insert herself, live and note-perfect, at the appropriate moment. Backdrops and video screens change behind her; lights flash around her; her stage costumes are unimaginably glamorous. The show, however, is barely alive: this is pop music as homeopathy, attempting to convince an audience that ever-smaller doses of live performance deliver an ever-increasing punch.

http://www.loudandquiet.com/short/baffling-funny-and-kidding-itself-of-artistic-heft-st-vincents-new-trolling-live-show/

That means we can all just stay home and send our phones in our stead.

idk man sounds pretty fucking cool actually.

isn't that sort of what the Knife did on Shaking the Habitual?

I thought her live show was great on the S/T tour, except for some very silly monologues about how 'when you were a child you dreamt of flying' or something that just didn't work and came across a bit Amanda Palmery

Knife on Shaking the Habitual tour (which I did not enjoy) was avant garde dance troupe getting down to musicians miming (I think). More radical was the SIA tour, imo, which had no musicians on stage and backing tracks, the singer masked but singing live far back at stage right, the videos a weird illusion of live performance and/or pre-fab, and every one of her songs acted/danced out by her troupe of dancers, including the girl from all her videos. In an arena.

Last time I saw St. Vincent live it was more or less set up like when Bjork toured Post, with a drummer and a couple of people behind keyboards, iirc. Plus Clark on guitar. She would stand stock still until it was time to solo, and then she would sort of shuffle around in her high heels.

I'm enjoying this new album, though! I kind of want to hear her collaborate with ... Trent Reznor. Or Flood.

or Drake.

That'd be cool, too.

Or lots of people, actually. She's a great singer and guitarist, you could drop her into any situation and she would sound good. Better than the Byrne album, at least.

about two-thirds of the shaking habitual tour was playback with dancing on the first leg and they cut that down to a third on the second leg.

i like some of this album (pills, the title track, sugarboy) but like most of her work it still leaves me cold overall.

I'm enjoying this new album, though! I kind of want to hear her collaborate with ... Trent Reznor. Or Flood.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 18, 2017 12:16 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed, I was definitely picking up some NIN vibes from one or two of the MASSEDUCTION tracks this morning.

Which ones sound most like NIN?

I'm not them but maybe fear the future

I'm thinking of the production, not songwriting. So, like, Savior (which does sound a bit like Closer), or Fear The Future, or Sugarboy/ Los Angeles (with their aggro Italo disco nods). It sounds pretty pervasive to me, but again, it's pretty surface, just the way it's produced and mixed, the way the distorted guitar pops out, etc.

I love the bit in the "Los Ageless" bridge that feels a little bit like it's pastiching Beck's "E-Pro".

i dunno, that live show sounds pretty interesting. I saw the Knife tour as well and also thought that was interesting. Do I think everyone should perform this way? no, but it's a bit laurie anderson-esque and I miss that kind of artsy performance wank.

^ I don't know, maybe you're right, but to be honest I kind of don't care about her visual half-assed art-student commentary on consumer culture or whatever she's trying to present with her current imagery. Maybe I'm just old but I'd rather see her playing for an hour with a tight rhythm section than witness what is basically a colourful karaoke.

Thanks for the suggestions re NIN comparisons. So far, this still doesn't feel like my thing (although I liked Actor pretty well); if there's a way in, though, this will probably be it.

I listened to this yesterday and found it quite moving, which surprised me. I usually enjoy StV on much more of a sweet riffs basis. Immediately after it Spotify stuck on "Antidote" (from Twilight Breaking Dawn Part II soundtrack, missed that one) and I thought it made a killer last track. Alas it does not belong.

Sugarboy the pick of the bunch for me, but the singles (as is so often the case) sound so much better sat in the album.

Lorde's live show? Or St Vincent's?

St Vincent's. Several people I know were there and said things along the lines of 'visually great but musically flat and lifeless'. By all accounts Lorde's most recent live shows were fantastic.

From what I understand a lot of her music is made alone, sat at the computer with her guitar on a very grid-based system, so maybe that's why? I think the flatness is sort of part of it in a way? You either like it or you don't.

Shitloads of modern music is made like that without that flatness though.

sure, i mean, i don't notice it or get bothered about it as much as you do though. there's plenty of music that does my head in (Four Tet, Caribou) for exactly the reasons you describe (too much mid-range, flat, lifeless and awkward-sounding) but I like St Vincent's production and sound choices

then again, i'm a big fan of things like Talking Heads and that nervous, twitchy, slightly stilted funk is something i really enjoy

so far i don't think this is her best album for me though. it feels like her tics are starting to show and while it's by far her most accessible work, it's the first one that feels arch or affected somehow

lol that apparently my problem with St Vincent up until now is that she wasn't arch enough

"Pills" is super.