Actor by St. Vincent
Actor is the second album by musician St. Vincent, released by 4AD on May 4, 2009, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States. The first single released was "Actor out of Work" that April. Annie Clark was influenced by scores to films by Disney and Woody Allen. To prevent writer's block, Clark watched films without the sound and composed music for her favorite scenes. After arranging the music using GarageBand, she then wrote lyrics and added gentle vocal melodies. The music video for "Actor out of Work" was premiered April 10, 2009 on Spinner. In it, Clark auditions a series of actors who begin sobbing in front of her. The video for "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood" features Clark with comedy duo ThunderAnt as owners of a feminist bookstore.
St. Vincent — née Annie Clark — has the ability to counter swirling, sparkling orchestral musical structures with an almost blasé sense that all is not well in the kingdom. “The Strangers,” all gentle woodwinds and glittering strings (is that a lute?) moves majestically as a cloud while Clark exhales, “Paint the black hole blacker, paint the black hole ... blacker.” On the jazz-inflected “Marrow,” a track full of distorted guitars and horns, she flatly intones, “help me, H - E - L - P ... me.” The Berklee-trained artist has already built a solid foundation with earlier works and collaborations (Glenn Branca, Polyphonic Spree) but here on the aptly titled <i>Actor</i>, she takes full control of everything, from set design to catering to the final cut. It’s not surprising that each track here began as a “secret” film score in her head, inspired while immersing herself in her favorite films, which included spectral opposites <i>Badlands</i> and <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>. (See what we mean?) It only makes sense to put twinkling pianos and fluttering flutes up against gargantuan bass drums and Hitchcockian guitars. Doesn’t it?
