Annie Clark, the pale, ethereal waif who goes by the stage name St. Vincent, has recently released her second album.

Clark is some kind of wonder; she took up the guitar at age 12 and worked as the tour manager for her uncle’s band, Tuck & Patti, while still a teenager. She also plays bass and keyboards and scores her own arrangements. Her debut album, Marry Me, released in 2007, was a showcase for her unique and varied song-writing and garnered her an avid cult following.

The new album, The Actor, for which Clark wrote all the songs and co-produced, continues her tradition of experimentation. It’s more cohesive than her previous work, yet the music is unclassifiable. The sound of St. Vincent can be at times sweet or menacing, vast or intimate, lush or industrial, often in the same song.

The album opens with “Strangers,” setting Clark’s airy vocals over a beat box and swirling carnival instrumentation. The chorus is upbeat while the lyrics are dark. “Paint the black hole blacker,” she chirps happily.

Clark excels in these contradictions and strange juxtapositions. Her voice has a sweetness that rides atop complex arrangements which often dive into dissonance. With aggressive guitar, vocal distortions and snippets of orchestration, one can hear the influence of Beck and Bjork. 

"Actor Out of Work,” the album’s first single, is probably the closest thing to an all-out rocker, but even this has a strange, sweeping grandeur. Clark has said that the album was inspired by her favorite films, like Snow White, Stardust Memories and Badlands. She imagined scoring her favorite scenes.

“I wanted to make something that had the whimsy and the sweetness of something very pure, like the Disney films, but also something that was kind of bloody and gory and disgusting,” Clark has said.

Clark has a unique approach to her material. Her music is not always easy listening, but somehow it all works. Actor is certainly not for everyone, but it will go far in furthering the popularity of St. Vincent and establishing Annie Clark as an important figure on the musical scene.

By Robert Rossiello