Massduction＜Neon Coral Vinyl＞

If Masseduction is any indication, the success St. Vincents Annie Clark had with her self-titled breakthrough album -- which included a Grammy for Best Alternative Album, playing with Nirvana at their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a long-running, electrifying tour -- almost led to a breakdown. Fortunately, for an artist as keenly observant as Clark, personal chaos counts as field research, and on her fifth album she weaponizes the trappings of her acclaim. Working with an in-demand producer (Bleachers Jack Antonoff, who has also shaped sounds for Lorde and Taylor Swift) and all-star collaborators including Kamasi Washington, Jenny Lewis, and Mike Elizondo, on Masseduction she creates a pop version of St. Vincent thats bigger and shinier -- but definitely not simpler. In its own way, its just as complex as her previous album, and as its sound gets more lurid and massive, its songs get more revealing and anxious. Hang on Me, which begins the album by comparing a relationship to a plane crash, is the first of many songs to go down in flames. On the title track, Clark sounds increasingly unhinged as she repeats the albums mission statement -- I cant turn off what turns me on -- over gleaming synths, outlandish guitars, and barely human harmonies. Here and on the deceptively sleek Sugarboy, where she describes herself as a casualty hanging from the balcony, she crafts potent cocktails of desire and destruction. Clark also transcends the familiarity of Masseductions tropes just as skillfully as she subverts pop musics conventions. The perky irony of Pills ode to pharmaceuticals could be cliched if its speedy verses werent followed by a narcotized coda featuring Washingtons woozily beautiful saxophone. Similarly, Clark finds new wrinkles on sexuality and boundaries on the Prince-ly Savior and injects new life into the tale of a partners OD on Young Lover, hitting wailing high notes that are equally fantastical and desperate. These cracking veneers allow more glimpses of real feeling than ever before in St. Vincents music, most strikingly on Happy Birthday, Johnny, a throwback to Marry Mes piano pop that finds a longtime friend calling Clark a sellout, and New York, a farewell to a changing town and changing relationships. Even the glossy satire of Los Ageless is punctuated by whispered confessions (I try to write you a love song but it comes out a lament) and limpid steel guitar that melts the rigidity of its beats, a motif that runs through the album. As it closes with Slow Discos bittersweet knowledge that its time to leave the bay of mistakes and the glowering self-destruction of Smoking Section, Masseduction delivers sketches of chaos with stunning clarity. Its the work of an always savvy artist at her wittiest and saddest. ~ Heather Phares