albums of the decade - 89. St. Vincent - Actor

89. St. Vincent - Actor (2009)

Annie Clark has worked with Sufjan Stevens and The Polyphonic Spree in the past, and while she inherits the elegance from the Spree, she decisively shares the resourcefulness of Stevens. 'Actor' is an apt name for this sophomore effort as Clark shifts styles and has multiple scenarios happening within a song. A key theme here is how a track begins sounding very pure and organic - case in example being 'Black Rainbow' - with flutes and violion. But then, along comes a badass industrial guitar and trumpets to sound out the crescendo, in an ominous finale. Take the lyrics from said song: "There's a black rainbow above my house / Mass of curtains in the floors / I think I'm glass I think I'm breaking it / Wrecking ball outside the door" or "One kiss boys and girls of paradise / Lining up around the block /Back pockets full of dynamite / While neighbors talk and talk and talk" - the sense of claustrophoboia and paranoia is recollective of Sylvia Plaith. With this, Clark's onto a very good thing indeed.