Actor
Year: 2009
Format: Digital
Grade: B-
One gift of this project is the power of hindsight.
It's interesting how subsequent releases by an artist shape the ones that came before it. A Hard Day's Night was good pop fun, but it represents an entirely different era for The Beatles when set alongside Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It also helps the listener see how an artist develops. With Actor, the listener can see St. Vincent — the nom de musique of Annie Clark, formerly of The Polyphonic Spree — was building the blocks that led to her 2011 breakout album Strange Mercy.
There's a sleekness to Strange Mercy that is largely absent here, but the bass still throbs and thuds with endless danceability as it does on Mercy.
Clark used a plethora of sounds and instruments, composing the record in Apple's GarageBand program. Woodwinds walk us into "Black Rainbow" before it builds to distorted, string-swirled madness. "Marrow" wouldn't be out of place on Mercy with a scuzzy, funky beat.
Hindsight being what it is, Actor feels like a competent warm up for Mercy.
Tomorrow's entry: The Presidents of the United States of America, Freaked Out and Small
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