Album Review: St. Vincent’s Masseduction Is The Album of The Week
St. Vincent’s Masseduction is colorfully creepy, and my choice for album of the week. By now, most have seen the video for her track, “Los Ageless”, and can get a feel of what this record is all about. In this time and age, how we connect to each other has been realized for its importance to our species’ survival. From obsessions to fads, infatuations of love, to self-loathing labels, Masseduction rises to show apathy is not the choice to go numb, it is the choice to stay in pain.
St. Vincent – “Los Ageless” (Official Video)
St. Vincent’s voice is not about range as much as theatricality. Tracks like, “Pills”, “Masseduction”, and “Slow Disco” make her vocals sound like tv channels you can flick through, and decide which show you are in the mood to watch. You have “ Savior”, which is about twistingly keeping a lover in check, or “ Smoking Section “, which shows how loneliness can oddly leave you praying you catch on fire because it would be the “most interesting” thing to happen to you in awhile. Is this a dark thought? Yes. Have we all had it? Yes. I cannot recall one person in my life who has not said or thought about throwing themselves off a bridge in anxiety. Whether they meant it or how badly they meant it, can be argued, but they thought it because frustrations are as common as they are boring. Despite belief, drama is not intriguing; it simply blocks genuine intrigue, like love or friendship, from coming. St. Vincent has discovered this wisdom and etches it out through roaring and pinning vocals in songs such as, “New York”, “Sugarboy”, and “Young Lover”. She knows how to make lyrics vulnerable and vicious in their protection of it. She is vocally slicing as she says she is personally wounded, and all this happens over music that can go from piano-rock ballads to electro-dance jams.
St. Vincent – New York (Official Video)
While Masseduction may sound as bright and mentally edible as a cable sitcom, St. Vincent plugs in hidden message and commentary on the connection between what we consume as persons and how we treat each other as people. This is not a new idea, but it freshens perspectives when you think about it. After all, if you are who you hang out with then are you not what you watch? What does watching Kardashians or Rachel Maddow say about you? How about Fox News or The Flash? Masseduction draws you in like a television saying, “I can’t turn off what turns me on!”. In a world that rightfully believes lies brainwash, St. Vincent add a stirring question, “What if you want to be brainwashed?”. What if you want to believe the lie, even you know the facts because the truth holds a darker note: you are not as great as you want to be. For More Information On Masseduction Click Here.
St. Vincent – Pills (official audio)
