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Sep 11, 2011The modulations and switches in pace remain as bold as ever, and Clark has a knack for memorable melody and a winning voice with shades of Kate Bush and Leslie Feist.
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Sep 9, 2011Her approach is confident and challenging, but not arch – several direct, haunting love songs are as delicate and affecting as any Adele tear-jerker.
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Entertainment WeeklyOct 6, 2011It's cerebral and a little chilly, but also full of musical surprises. [23 Sep 2011, p.79]
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Sep 13, 2011While strings and horns occasionally creep in, Strange Mercy consistently makes do with little more than a conventional rock-band setup. All the better to display the record's rougher edges and willingness to let its mistakes show.
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Jan 3, 2012St. Vincent's most sonically rich effort to date.
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Sep 20, 2011Virtuosity and accessibility have never been easy bedfellows, but Strange Mercy is one of those rare albums that makes you think and makes you fall in love.
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Sep 13, 2011Much like Actor, it's the contrast of tendernesses in both the red-raw and Elvis senses of the word, that marks St. Vincent's music out as something more sophisticated and enthralling than it might first appear.
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Sep 12, 2011Here, Clark's role-playing is grounded in emotions that are as cryptic as they are genuine and affecting. And when her voice can't bear it, her guitar does the screaming.
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Sep 12, 2011Strange Mercy is more mysterious than its predecessors, the references more obscure, but it also feels more personal.
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Sep 12, 2011Like the best art, Strange Mercy lets you know that it means something, though what the point is is as much open to interpretation as it is a matter of its author's intentions, which is how it should be.
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Sep 9, 2011With each album, her willingness to push the envelope in both halves of the equation grows, as if she trusts her audience to in turn trust her enough to follow her further along the path.
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Sep 8, 2011Even if Strange Mercy is like a blender with its top blown off, it's undeniable how convincing St. Vincent has become.
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Sep 1, 2011Here she simply stopped trying to impress and simply assembled through feel and intuition, and, taken as a whole, it feels perfect. [Jul 2011, p.82]
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Aug 26, 2011Clark's complex femininity, both self-possessed and keenly evolving, is what makes her music so powerful and fascinating.
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Sep 13, 2011Annie Clark stands out with her work because she is one of the few artists that can take something mournful and make it jarring yet angelic all at once.
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Sep 12, 2011Strange Mercy resonates as a strangely moving album about resilience. It's as messy as life often can be, ugly and beautiful all at once.
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Sep 21, 2011Strange Mercy is Clark's most tense, nauseous, kaleidoscopic album yet.
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Sep 13, 2011Strange Mercy is the lonely next door neighbour who could be just as popular if only you took the time to get to know her. Instead she is left to turn introspectively, which might not produce quite so brilliantly chromatic stories, but they can be just as – if not more – compelling.
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Sep 23, 2011If this all sounds sort of strange or back-handed, that can be attributed to the fact that Strange Mercy takes a few listens to grasp, and it makes the repeat visits enticing. And that's a sign of a strong album.
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Sep 22, 2011Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, is an astounding electric guitarist, yet on her absorbing third album she never puts her mastery of the instrument ahead of a great song.
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Q MagazineSep 22, 2011Uneasy listening from honey-tongued, dark-hearted singer.
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Sep 14, 2011Full of great lyrics and great playing, Strange Mercy is St. Vincent's most reflective and most audacious album to date, and Clark remains as delicately uncompromising an artist as ever.
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Sep 13, 2011The more Clark edits, the more she refines, the stronger St. Vincent becomes. At this point, it's just a matter of consistency.
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Sep 13, 2011Strange Mercy is her best yet, a deft mixture of self-confession, master class musicality, and downright unshakable songs.
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Sep 13, 2011St. Vincent reaches, and while she doesn't quite find it throughout, listening to the reach is certainly more interesting than listening to an album that answers just one of the questions again and again and again.
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Sep 12, 2011It may not be leaps and bounds ahead of previous St Vincent releases, but this is a rich and multi-faceted album to pay close attention to.
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Sep 12, 2011Yet, far from a liability, Clark's bare, sedate St. Vincent persona is the highlight of Strange Mercy, reflecting all the terror, beauty, and allure of her music more effectively than any cantakerous narrator could muster.
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Sep 9, 2011It's a little top-heavy, and meanders towards the end, but it's smart, demanding and unique, too.
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MojoSep 8, 2011Strange Mercy is the shimmering, expansive sound of an artist defiantly coming into her own. [Oct 2011, p.104]
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Sep 6, 2011A fabulous album, confirming St. Vincent's status as a deeply talented artist.
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Sep 15, 2011The back end fades, but with Strange Mercy, St. Vincent masters the art of grin and bear it.
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Sep 13, 2011Strange Mercy becomes more intriguing the more you listen to it--even if that means you also get further away from comprehending its idiosyncrasy.
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Sep 14, 2011Crucially, her sense of humour remains intact, sharp and lethal – the sweet laments carried by her increasingly accomplished voice feel often to be one step away from, not laughter exactly, but self-deprecation, or a mordant smile at her own expense.
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Sep 12, 2011Strange Mercy is visceral, vivid stuff: When Clark announces, amid a Roxy Music-style glam racket, that she's seen the northern lights ("Northern Lights"), you'll swear you can see them too.
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Sep 11, 2011As advertised, Strange Mercy lets us off more easily than it should, but without the promised strangeness.
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Sep 13, 2011On her third work, Strange Mercy, her facility with song craft is no less compelling for its cerebral beauty, but too often that cool, constructed quality stands between its maker and the wild bramble of the song.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 197 out of 210
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Mixed: 6 out of 210
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Negative: 7 out of 210
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Sep 21, 2011
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Sep 14, 2011
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Jan 8, 2012