User Score
Universal acclaim- based on 146 Ratings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 136 out of 146
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Mixed: 4 out of 146
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Negative: 6 out of 146
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Apr 15, 2018
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Mar 12, 2022An unsettling pristine rant. St. Vincent follow up to the sardonic marry me with a crashing descent into nihilistic apathy. It is smart ,versatile and exciting. An impressive precursor to strange mercy grandeur.
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Jun 15, 2011
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May 7, 2021
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Nov 23, 2017Probably one of my favourite albums of the 2000s. St. Vincent truly brings her craft to the next level after her beautifully eclectic first album "Marry Me". Gorgeous vocals filled with heartfelt lyrics and a sassy sound. Download: The Strangers, Black Rainbow, Marrow.
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Aug 24, 2014What happens here is very unusual: a second album that's even way better than its predecessor. Excellent forms and structures color wonderful songs that tend to start as if they were in a magic fairy tale and end as if they were burning out in hell. To say it clearer, this album explodes irony; explodes artistry; explodes anxious talent.
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Oct 3, 2011St. Vincentâ
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Nov 3, 2010It is incredible that this album can be better than her first but it is. St. Vincent managed to make an even better album this time around and it's great I love almost every song and the best songs in this album are probably among the best of 2009.
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Apr 27, 2014"Actor" is a brilliant album...just slightly less brilliant than "Strange Mercy" (2011) & "St. Vincent" (2014). And her debut, "Marry Me" (2009) is just slightly less brilliant than this one. What a catalog!!
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HelenBMay 6, 2009I loved Clark's debut - "Marry Me", and "Actor" was even more compex, lyrical and darker. I enjoy her experimentation with this sort of clashing between sweet orchestral arrangements with the dark crazy distorted feature of the guitar. She is lethal on the guitar and I love it. Definitely a contender for top album this year.
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ClifCMay 7, 2009Amazing all the way. Go girl!
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YemaOct 18, 2009I can't believe this doesn't have a higher metacritic rating. The critics who gave it scores as low as 60 are wrong! I can listen to this album the whole way through and it never gets old. Truly a masterpiece and it deserves to be in every Top 10 list this year!
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BlueMeanieOct 4, 2009Ignore the cover. It's studiously naive like a Talking Heads photo. Like them, this is revolutionized pop as well. Way better than what I expected.
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JackMay 5, 2009She's evolved, same beautiful voice, but has found the sound where the voice belongs. The ties to Sufjan are more evident. But how can that be a bad thing. Amazing, do yourself the favor and check it out!
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ChristianPMay 6, 2009so so so impressive in so so so many ways.
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EvanSMay 8, 2009
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LaurenceBMay 8, 2009Incredible album - the stage is set for St. Vincent to storm the top 5's of innumerable end-of-year lists.
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JohnMay 9, 2009Masterpiece. Nothing else needs to be said.
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AidanWJun 11, 2009Great from start to finish. A great synthesis of late 80s indie rock and St. Vincent's own energy. Varied, and captivating!
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AaronJul 5, 2009This record deserves a top 5 position on most critics end of year lists for sure.
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michaelmMay 5, 2009Vicious and gorgeous.
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JeremyFMay 5, 2009
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MWMay 6, 2009Wonderful.
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AndrewBMay 6, 2009Like a love child between Audrey Hepburn and Frank Zappa.
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DannyTJun 16, 2009Brilliance. Visionary.
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YemaLMay 31, 2009An amazing album that gets better every time you listen to it. I can't stop listening!
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SimonD.Jul 18, 2009Perhaps the most spot-on pop album of the decade. I agree with the commenter who called it visionary: Annie Clark is redefining what pop music should be. Truly, truly stunning.
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May 15, 2012
Awards & Rankings
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Her second album is rowdier and less well-behaved, and thus better, although the template is the same: breathy coos and lush strings intermittently blown apart by distorted guitar blasts.
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On first listen it feels like the musical equivalent of doodling a massive cock-and-balls on a Rembrandt, but eventually this reveals itself as the first moment of compositional brilliance on an album packed full of them.
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Quite eponymously, the album is a grand performance, and one whose stagecraft is the sole work of a brilliant ringmaster in Clark.