CD REVIEW | St. Vincent’s follow-up to ‘Marry Me’ has complex guitar playing

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St. Vincent crafts a beautiful, catchy and sometimes raucous batch of tunes that is sure to please fans of her debut and will certainly capture the attention of those uninitiated.

“Marry Me,” the 2007 debut album from St. Vincent, the moniker of Brooklyn resident Annie Clark, caught the attention of bloggers, magazines and music fans alike, making her one of the most currently recognizable names and faces in indie rock.

“Actor,” her second album, and first to be released by 4AD records, builds on the strengths of “Marry Me,” and manages to achieve certain highs that “Marry Me” failed to reach.

“The Strangers,” the first track on the album, re-introduces Clark’s unmistakably beautiful voice and surprisingly complex guitar playing. A steady bass drum bump keeps the tempo as Clark’s voice floats weightlessly overtop of subtle guitar work, brief orchestral flourishes and barely-there vocal samples.

Midway through, the song breaks loose, introducing Clark’s virtuosic guitar playing, soaked in fuzz and kept afloat by overdriven but straightforward drumming.

One of the things that makes “Actor” such a rewarding listen is Clark’s ability to maintain such a perfect balance between beauty, catchiness, raucousness and innovativeness. Every song manages to sound different from the one prior, but still maintains Clark’s unmistakable fingerprint.

Lead single “Actor Out Of Work” is one of Clark’s best and most unbridled affairs, bursting with intensity and a sense of urgency that never relents throughout the song’s all-too-short 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Drums bang, guitars chug and fuzz, Clark croons wordlessly and the effect is sublime. “I think I love you/I think I’m mad,” Clark admits in the song’s final line before one final burst of awesome cacophony.

One of the things that sets St. Vincent apart from fellow female indie-poppers Feist, Jenny Lewis and My Brightest Diamond, is her sense of adventure. She can do quiet and subdued (Feist), traditional folk (Jenny Lewis) and she can certainly do tense and dramatic (My Brightest Diamond), and then some, all the while maintaining an undeniable sense of charm and grace rarely seen in her contemporaries

“Actor” stands as a wonderful and worthwhile follow-up to Clark’s 2007 debut “Marry Me,” and is also one of the strongest releases 2009 has seen thus far.

Fans of the aforementioned acts, as well as more mainstream female singer-songwriters Tori Amos, Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor, are sure to fall head-over-heels for “Actor” and are urged to seek it out at once.

“Actor” will be released Tuesday on 4AD records.

features@cm-life.com