St. Vincent, the artistic chameleon known for her genre-bending explorations, dives headfirst into the abyss with her seventh album, 'All Born Screaming'. Shedding the unifying concept albums of the past, this offering feels like a cathartic release, a wild tapestry woven from the threads of her established sounds.
The album opens with a bang on 'Hell Is Near', drums pounding a war rhythm as disco guitars snake through the industrial chaos. Her signature vocals, both fragile and ferocious, weave through the soundscape, hinting at the emotional turmoil simmering beneath. This sense of beautiful destruction permeates the album. Tracks like 'Violent Times' channel the swagger of a Bond theme, complete with dramatic strings, before dissolving into a haunting portrait of a world crumbling.
While the overall feel is darker and heavier than previous works, glimmers of St. Vincent's playful side peek through. 'Big Time Nothing' throws a curveball with its spoken-word verses and a squelching funk chorus, a bizarre but oddly compelling combination. There's a sense of freedom in this experimentation, a willingness to embrace the strange and discordant.
Lyrically, St. Vincent wrestles with anxieties of the modern world - environmental collapse, societal decay, and the ever-present sense of unease. 'The Power's Out' feels like a David Bowie-inspired apocalypse ballad, with tales of a world plunged into darkness, where "every stranger looked like they knew me." The title track serves as the album's centerpiece, a sprawling seven-minute journey that begins with an almost breezy melody before exploding into a cacophony of sound. Clark's voice reaches new heights of intensity as she chants the title phrase, a primal scream echoing the album's core anxieties.
'All Born Screaming' isn't a comfortable listen. It's a confrontation with the ugliness of the world and the complexities of the human psyche. Yet, within the darkness, there's a glimmer of hope. The album's closing moments, on the title track, see the artist finally exhaling, releasing a lifetime's worth of tension. Perhaps, through acknowledging the screams, we can begin to find a path forward.
Whether this is St. Vincent's most accessible album is debatable. However, it's undeniably her most personal and powerful. This is a record that demands to be experienced, a wild and exhilarating ride through the darkest corners of human experience.
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