Well…. after a somewhat storming first six months of 2011, with at least half a dozen good new albums (including one bona fide classic in PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake), it’s been a very quiet last few weeks in Knob Towers. As the blissful summer sojourn draws to a close though – I think we did have a summer, allegedly – and the nights start drawing in, the last quarter of the year has a number of promising upcoming releases. First out of the traps comes this pair, both from American female singer-songwriters who share an interest in the more, shall we say, esoteric corners of pop music.
St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, is a 28 year old Texan – 29 this month, according to Wikipedia - invariably described as “elfin” (got that out of the way early!). Strange Mercy is her third album, following 2007’s strong Marry Me and 2009’s even more impressive Actor. Annie has retained her eclectic array of song structures & musical palettes but this collection has a far heavier “electric” sound and is rather less baroque than its predecessors.
Opening track Chloe in the Afternoon kicks things off with phased synthesisers - somewhat reminiscent of Strawberry Fields Forever - quickly joined by loud crunching fuzz guitar - somewhat reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix - over which she informs us that “You're all legs, I'm all nerves”, leaving very little doubt about the song’s subject matter. The strange rhythms and phrasing which she has used so effectively in the past are in place (great chorus) and this is an impressive start to proceedings. Following this is Cruel - very 80s synth pop and very catchy.
Round and round we go, hopping through styles, much invention at every turn but never losing the sense that this is a cohesive set: Surgeon is a woozy little ditty which inhabits similar lyrical territory to Chloe… (“I spent the summer on my back “) and builds to an almost RnB/Jazz climax; Northern Lights is probably closest in tone to her earlier work (it wouldn’t feel out of place on Actor) and has a lovely rolling quality; Champagne Year is a beautiful second cousin twice-removed of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Cheerleader is about as far away from what one would normally expect from such a title as I think it’s possible to be and would probably scare Britney Spears sh*itl*ss. Opening with strummed electric guitar and no percussion, it quickly becomes apparent that this is not going to be a paean to that most extolled of supposed aspirations for young American girls (“I've had good times with some bad guys; I've told whole lies with a half smile”) and bursts wide open for the pained, lumbering chorus (“But I-I-I-I-I don’t want to be your cheerleader no more”). A cracker.
Talking of strange, Tori Amos is also back with new album Night of the Hunters. For us those of us in the “like Tori” camp (to use a well-worn but appropriate cliché, she is the most Marmite of artists) a lot of her appeal is her singularity - you never really know what to expect. In 2005 my daughter and I went to see her on tour for album The Beekeeper, one of her more approachable and tuneful sets of late; she didn’t play a single track from it.
The fact that Night of the Hunters is being released on the classical Deutsche Grammophon label gives an indication of her current direction. Taking an almost contrary approach to St. Vincent it’s very baroque - wall-to-wall piano, strings and woodwind with not an electric instrument in sight. Tori has described it as “a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years"; her stated brief was to “pay tribute” and “take inspiration” from original compositions by renowned composers (Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert etc.) to create a new, independent work.
There is a linear linking concept here – involving an abandoned modern-day Irish woman confronted by mythical creatures, transported back through the centuries to a previous life and confronting all manner of forces on the “path to enlightenment” - but it takes a lot of work to try to figure out exactly what she’s singing about most of the time (this is not necessarily a bad thing). The tone of the whole set is reserved and quite melancholy – don’t come here looking for another Cornflake Girl or Professional Widow - although opener Shattering Sea is driven by pounding staccato piano to set the scene with a vivid description of the protagonist’s relationship breakdown (“That is not my blood on the bedroom floor; that is not the glass that I threw before”).
Highlights? Your Ghost is a far more typical Tori ballad than most of the other fare on display, along the lines of Winter, and tells of encountering a spirit dissimilar to the narrator (“He'll play a Beatles tune; me, more a Bach fugue. Is this such a great divide?”) but with whom she feels affinity - “Please leave me your ghost, I will keep him from harm”. Job’s Coffin has probably the most moving vocal performance here with a strong female perspective – “There exists a power of old who wanted Earth to be controlled, but she and she alone is her own” – and the woodwind accompaniment in particular really works. Nautical Twilight is a reasonable preview of the whole album - a tune that sounds vaguely familiar (Mendelssohn?) but with nice lyrical touches (“Greed and his twin, tyranny”).
Footnote to the above video: Am I the only one reminded of “Not the Nine O’Clock News” when watching it? Deliberate, surely?
This is undoubtedly a major talent at work and it makes for a relaxing, if not exactly “easy”, listen but, for me, Night of the Hunters is generally one to admire rather than love.
Strange Mercy is available now on 4AD. Night of the Hunters is released September 20th on Deutsche Grammophon.
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