St. Vincent- Actor
5/10

Curly haired, polyphonic pop princess Annie Clark was all over the blogs back in 2007. Fresh out of the Polyphonic Spree, her debut album Marry Me was a hit, highlighting her ability as both a songwriter and a strong vocalist. Her whimsical voice was a delight; cushioned by some soft orchestral arrangements, it engaged you and left you daydreaming. Actor is the follow up to Marry Me and things have certainly changed. Clark’s wonderfully soft voice is ripped to pieces, drowned by some very questionable electro synths and fuzzy electric guitars that scream glam rock gone very wrong. ‘Marrow’ is the worst culprit, closely followed by ‘Actor Out Of Work’, both cursed by heavily warped bursts of post punk guitars and dodgy synths. Just why Clark has chosen to go with such a dense sound is quite nagging, her voice can hardly be heard, let alone understood. The instruments all fight with each other to be the centre of attention and they come off sounding maniacally depressed. ‘The Party’ is the exception, Clark’s voice is given some space to breathe and it’s by far the best track on the album. She has time to work with her voice and extend her vocal range. While it’s agreed that a whole album of slow piano ballads would be equally as boring, it would have been nice to have heard more than one. On opening track ‘The Strangers’ and following track ‘Save Me From What I Want’ Clark’s voice has brief moments in the spotlight, but it doesn’t last, crushed by an ongoing tendency to rush in a heavy layer of guitars, violin and keys. Her voice hasn’t been mixed very well, on slower songs like ‘The Bed’ her voice fails to escape the dim backdrop and it’s a constant failure running throughout Actor.  She has such an extraordinary vocal capability but it’s so over crowded on this album. It’s an unfortunate disaster.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews