Annie Clark is a shining star of modern pop music, a deft songwriter and arranger. Her music has a theatrical aspect, veering between syrupy sweet and satirically dark, encompassing the whole emotional spectrum. Clark is renowned for her excellently choreographed live performances, creating grand visual experiences equally as captivating as her music. Her potent, evolutionary approach to music and striking persona has led to comparisons with David Bowie and Kate Bush. While her ability as a songwriter and arranger is matched by her prodigious skill on the guitar. In a glittering career, MASSEDUCTION saw Clark channel her prowess into a dark-dance epic.
Clark’s musical fascination stems from the guitar, captivated as a child after watching La Bamba, the 1987 biopic of Chicago rock and roll star Ritchie Valens. She began playing the guitar at the age of 12, and as a teenager, she furthered her musical education by working as a roadie for her aunt and uncle’s jazz duo, Tuck & Patti. Clark later managed one of the duo’s European tours before leaving to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Berklee, Clark and some fellow students released an EP, Ratsliveonnoevilstar (named after the palindrome coined by poet Anne Sexton).
Clark left Berklee after three years, joining the psychedelic symphonic pop band Polyphonic Spree. The band scored a minor hit with the single ‘Light and Day’ in 2002 and are renowned for their relentlessly positive brand of choral music and ecstatic live performances. Clark would leave Polyphonic Spree in 2006, joining Sufjan Stevens’ touring band, impressing Stevens with her innovative and expressive guitar playing. The same year Clark released her first solo EP, Paris is Burning, including a cover of Nico’s Jackson Browne-penned hit ‘These Days’. Paris is Burning was Clark’s first release under the moniker St. Vincent, derived from a line in Nick Cave’s song ‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World’.
Clark dropped her debut album, Marry Me, a year later, receiving widespread praise for her left-field arrangements, creating a semi-rock opera. 2009’s Actor was even more expansive; influenced by Disney scores, Clark channelled her creativity as a composer by watching films without the sound, creating her own compositions. Actor was released to critical acclaim, lauded for its sonic palette and Clark’s expressive songwriting, focusing on character-driven narratives, telling stories of women feeling trapped and restless. Clark’s stock continued to rise with 2011’s Strange Mercy, written almost entirely in isolation; it provided Clark’s most personal offering yet while demonstrating her skills as a guitarist.
Clark’s talent hadn’t escaped the notice of David Bryne, the legendary frontman of Talking Heads. The duo released their collaborative album, the brass-heavy Love This Giant, in 2012, examining themes of human transformation and pushing each other into new creative spaces. Clark’s fourth album, St. Vincent, followed in 2014, her sleekest offering yet, filled with hooky, catchy choruses and a funky robotic energy. Again, St. Vincent garnered huge acclaim, Clark becoming the first woman since Sinead O’Connor in 1991 to win Best Alternative Music Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards. As immense as Clark’s talent is, that probably says more about issues in the music industry.
After working with John Congleton on St. Vincent, Clark opted for a change of direction on MASSEDUCTION, enlisting Jack Antonoff to help her produce the record. Antonoff was starting to amass quite the CV as a producer, achieving great success working alongside Taylor Swift and Lorde. Clark’s aunt and uncle also appeared on the album, while there were brief cameos from Jenny Lewis, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, and American record producer Sounwave, famed for his work with Kendrick Lamar.
On making the record, Clark set out to “make a record about power and seduction” while describing it as “sorrow you can jam to”. Exploring themes of power, sex, drugs, sadness, relationships, and death, MASSEDUCTION represented Clark’s most intimate offering yet. The record marked a departure in sound, focusing less on guitars, instead opting for swirling synths and vibrant drum patterns as Clark shifted towards the dancefloor. The result was a futuristic, electro-pop masterpiece, creating dance anthems where dark themes lurked beneath the pounding rhythms.
The throbbing pop of ‘Pills’ and ‘Sugarboy’ encapsulates the glossy darkness. The former takes the form of a jaunty jingle: “Pills to wake, pills to sleep/Pills, pills, pills every day of the week”, Clark’s dark humour to the fore as she draws upon her sleep-troubled experiences. The latter rattles along with its catchy call-and-response lyrics and spacey synths as Clark celebrates gender fluidity: “I am a lot like you (Boys)/I am alone like you girls”. ‘Young Lover’ goes one step further, a catchy, pulsing piece of neon-coated despair; it tells the startling story of Clark discovering someone overdosed in a bathtub: “young lover begging you please to wake up”. Clark’s high-pitched pleading outro seems even more haunting when it melts into the instrumental ‘Dancing With a Ghost’.
The guitars may be more sparing than on St. Vincent, but Clark employs them to great effect. The sharp crunching riffs on ‘Madsseduction’ combine perfectly with Clark’s repeated mantra: “I can’t turn off what turns me on” to create a gloriously ecstatic chorus. The sexual-role play experimentation narrative of ‘Savior’ is lifted with some suitably slinky riffs, punctuating Clark’s adventurous statements and providing a funky, seductive backdrop. ‘Fear The Future’ is the record’s most unhinged moment, Clark’s swirling, shredding riffs colliding with the skittering, techno-like percussion. Clark’s skill with the guitar is undoubtable, but her greatest asset is knowing when to use it. She never strays into self-indulgence.
Between the bombastic electronics, dramatic choruses, and punchy percussion, MASSEDUCTION is equally as compelling in its slower moments. ‘Los Ageless’ is a humorous takedown of L.A, revelling in its ambiguous chorus line (“How can anybody have you”), and features a lovely, restrained funky guitar breakdown. ‘New York‘ serves as a tender love letter to NYC, a touching ballad that sees Clark lament the loss of several musical heroes: “I have lost a hero/I have lost a friend”, but vowing to continue their legacy.
‘Happy Birthday Johnny’ provides a conclusion to the “Johnny trilogy”, Johnny being the figurative character that previously appeared in ‘Prince Johnny’ and ‘Marry Me’. On ‘Prince Johnny’, Clark sounded weary as she warned him, “You’re kind, but do be careful” ‘Happy Birthday Johnny’ is distinctly more sombre. Clark’s nostalgic tales are tinged with sadness, expressing guilt: “Of course, I blame”, but ultimately wishing him the best: “I hope you find peace”.
The hauntingly subdued closer, ‘Smoking Section’ wades into the darkest waters. Initially hiding behind metaphorical allusions, likening herself to a stray cigarette butt hoping to be stomped out and an inland ocean, Clark’s statements suddenly become more direct: “And sometimes I go to the edge of my roof”. The track’s dark tones are sharpened by the distant pounding of the drums and the repeated mantra, “Let it happen, let it happen, let it happen”. The hopeful-sounding bridge lifts the track, Clark signing off on a vaguely optimistic note: “It’s not the end, it’s not the end”.
The album comes full circle in a sense, Clark as vulnerable as she is in the opening track, ‘Hang On Me’, where she sings, “The void is back and unblinkin'”. Clark’s striking album covers, where she stares off into the distance, stoked a misconstrued conception that her songwriting was distant, hiding behind characters. Clark had already rubbished such notions on Strange Mercy, but MASSEDUCTION is arguably her most intimate offering yet, more Annie Clark, less St. Vincent. Clark’s lyrics can be wonderfully ambiguous, and the slight air of mystery heightens their power. MASSEDUCTION is a captivating experience demonstrating the full array of Clark’s talents.