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Street Sounds: Edible audible bites

Annie Clark (St. Vincent) comes across like an American Bjork
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Annie Clark’s fifth album, Masseduction is a blend of deep and futuristic jams. (St. Vincent Facebook photo)

Annie Clark’s fifth album, Masseduction is a deep and inscrutable celebration of pop culture that’s both ear candy and artistically edgy.

Clarke, a singer/guitarist/songwriter who performs under the name St. Vincent can come across like an American version of Bjork with left field guitar skills and an approachable personality. She’s also a compelling musician whose onstage demeanor suggests that of an android on LSD.

On Masseduction, songs can migrate from chilly ballad (New York) to robotic daydream fantasies like Fear the Future. There’s drama and Bowie-esque abstraction, all through the recording but Clark’s artistic compulsion drives the album relentlessly.

Her guitar sounds are jagged and bold and have nothing to do with the pop, rock and blues- derived sounds of constant circulation. The album takes that and pairs it with the wide eyed thrum of outside electro-art rock for some post industrial space age thrills.

The recording is a diversion from ordinary and easily understood mainstream sounds. It’s futuristic and noise happy, revelling in its off-kilter electronica. There are many moments of impressive invention and out- there grooves (Sugarboy, Savior) and a random snippet of deliberately pointless conformity (Los Ageless) that reference nightclub clichés.

Clark is unpredictable and versatile and the recording is wide screen weirdness done up as pop culture commentary.

–Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who reviews the latest music releases in his column, Street Sounds, every Friday.