Masseduction

It’s a jittering, coruscating sucker punch of an album--and St. Vincent’s first bona fide masterpiece.

It’s the best encapsulation of her vision to date, here fully under her control.

MASSEDUCTION is nothing less than an absolutely towering achievement.

Along with the equally exceptional St Vincent which came before it, this is the moment that St Vincent enters the fabled realm reserved for the greats.

The extremes of emotions are covered on Masseduction: the highs and lows of love, heartbreak and just general life. It is the closest we’ve ever been to Clark, and it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get.

What we're witnessing is a woman bowing down to nothing but her own muse. [No. 149, p.61]

Ultimately, MASSEDUCTION defies explanation and critique, rendering the critic a dead weight in the dust of its ever-accelerating sucker-punch of ideas.

Five studio albums in, it feels more like another new beginning, and pretty close to a masterpiece.

The artists for whom Clark now carries the torch were never satisfied with their past accomplishments and were always pushing forward. MASSEDUCTION cements her in this camp.

Masseduction delivers sketches of chaos with stunning clarity. It's the work of an always savvy artist at her wittiest and saddest.

You wouldn’t want one track or note to be changed or left out. It’s a genuine masterpiece: complex, funny, sexy, bleak, uplifting, inspiring and enthralling from start to finish.

MASSEDUCTION defies expectation, defies definition and defies the very idea that definition can exist. It’s an album detailing the mess of identity politics and power structures, and yet it hits serious cohesive highs. There is no cookie-cutter remedy, no rallying cry, just a baker’s dozen viewpoints of the chasm where we once thought order, power, and meaning lived.

She drops some of the emotional armor on her fifth studio album, Masseducation, which comes off as not only one of her most ambitious works, but also her most transparent.

On MASSEDUCTION, Clark remains as unpredictable as ever, though there’s one thing fans will have gotten right: so far, at least, Annie Clark has proven incapable of writing anything less than a knockout pop song.

MASSEDUCTION has set the bar high for the rest of the indie rock universe and proves that St. Vincent is a truly unique talent that is both innovative and entertaining.

Clark’s fifth album isn’t a retreat to an earlier style--if anything it’s even brighter, bolder and broader than St Vincent, even more given to IMAX worthy gestures-- but Clark does appear to have reconciled the streamlined automation of her new aesthetic with the orch pop crafting of her first three records, Marry Me (2007), Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011). [Nov 2017, p.64]

The album is far more interesting when Clark is more introspective, pleading “please don’t hang up yet” on the gorgeous “Hang On Me,” or simply showcasing her noisiest guitar riffs on “Young Lover.”

Clark has carved out a space as a guitar hero in an era where that sort of thing is supposed to be over. That is impressive, even if the theatrics occasionally wear me out, and begin to feel like preludes for a visually dynamic live show. I’m much more attracted to MASSEDUCTION’s humbler moments, when you can better imagine the songs without the heavy arrangements.

This album, a partnership with top pop whisperer Jack Antonoff, is a masterpiece of confrontational intimacy, and Clark lays herself bare as only a woman who has seen her life suddenly become tabloid fodder can.

Clark's baroque musical sensibilities remain intact throughout Masseduction, but the increased tenderness of her vocal performances, coupled with more thematic emphasis on the push and pull of romantic relationships, offers a moving counterweight to St. Vincent's typically wry cultural commentary.

Accessible but challenging, Masseduction thumbs its nose at genre while Clark’s choice of producer--Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lorde)--roots it firmly in pop; it is, after all, an attempt to jump Clark from cult act to mass seductress. It’s working.

A brilliantly-realised evocation of addiction building to crisis-point before the inevitable comedown heralds a change in priorities, it gives some idea of what Clark herself may be building towards.

From the very start you can hear and see the ideas that were explored in the clips and videos stretched to their fullest, most histrionic range.

Clark promised us "sex and drugs and sadness" on MASSEDUCTION, and while that sounds like a recipe for clichéd disaster, she kept her word and managed to fashion a totally refreshing take in the process.

Fans of the last LP will not be disappointed--yes, even with the ones that sound (whisper it) a bit too much like Muse. But there’s so much more here than artful innovation.

Sonically, the record gradually unfurls into something similarly captivating though, as Clark ditches the guitar rock for pop that is rich, nuanced and constantly surprising

In Masseduction we already have both Dorian and his portrait: the fox on the album’s cover, all rampant neons, stockinged legs, and taut flesh, and the inner ravaging--material just too good to keep in the attic.

It’s relatable while remaining singular, and unsurprisingly it’s also (mostly) bangin’.

Masseduction stays poised between passion and artifice, trusting listeners to decrypt its paradoxes.

Dark, intense and utterly compelling record. [Nov 2017, p.98]

Each St. Vincent album has outclassed the one before, and her fifth is no exception. [Nov 2017, p.106]

It's a bravura fusion of dense-art metal/pop and strutting baroque disco. [Nov 2017, p.36]

Masseduction often feels fragmentary, like two or three albums in the campaign of one.

Compared to previous outings, this may be the most bold and unabashed offering of Annie Clark’s career. It certainly isn’t her best collection of songs outright, but there’s a certain amount of style points that she garners for remaining so committed to bucking the expectations set by her audience and industry.

Masseduction doesn’t always sound comfortable letting its artifice crumble, and its half-hearted attempts at social commentary cause it to sag at times. It might not be the preeminent masterpiece many are already making it out to be, but the album does have some great moments, and it bodes good things for the trajectory of St. Vincent’s ongoing career.

But for all its merits, much of the chaos on MASSEDUCTION tends to move rapidly in one ear and out the other, making it a pleasant but somewhat faceless affair.