St. Vincent – St. Vincent

Annie Clark’s work as St. Vincent has always bore the hallmarks of a restlessly inventive artist, with a magpie ability to mix her rock and pop lineages at will, but it’s on this – her fourth full-length – that Clark’s fickle allegiances are truly honed, producing something that feels simultaneously coherent and generically adventurous. From the opener Rattlesnake’s catchy, stripped-back electro riffs onwards, St. Vincent is the sound of an artist in total control of her musical identity.

Clark dips into Lana Del Rey-style chamber-pop, with the synth voices of Prince Johnny, and toys with a sharp-edged, mutant soul on the brass stabs of Digital Witness; there’s a range of influences here that should feel disparate, but it somehow works. The uniting factor is a funk-centred tautness which runs throughout the record: no instrument or melody is allowed to dominate, and the end result is a deftly-woven, endearingly direct tapestry of genres.