Best New Tracks - Pitchfork |  |
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Posted: 09 Dec 2013 09:05 AM PST
Leave it to Annie Clark, forever if possible, to electrify the mundane. Over the past six years, the guitarist, who refers to her forthcoming self-titled fourth solo album as "A party record you could play at a funeral," has become a master of turning domestic images into vivid commentary—weird, militant licks into wild declarations of both complicity and rebellion. St. Vincent's first single, "Birth in Reverse", continues that tradition in vibrant, evolved color.
Employing itchy percussion to poke a reluctant protagonist—rather violently—out her own front door, "Birth" maligns America's fearful regressiveness while simultaneously attempting to shake off that easy, laughable banality herself. (An "ordinary day" consists of taking out the garbage and masturbating, a routine that verges on sitcom fodder.) The challenge of abandoning comfort in exchange for the unknown is daunting (who knows when we'll have time to pleasure ourselves?), but amidst her signature, inexorable groove, she sings, "Laugh all you want, but I want more/ What I'm swearing I've never sworn before." The leader of the charge has never been more powerful, or more resolute.  |
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