Top 50 2011: Surgeon

Annie Clark’s work as St. Vincent has a wonderful eerieness about it, something that just doesn’t feel quite right.  As every reviewer seemed to note in their reviews/articles about her/the album, there’s a lot of darkness coming from such a pretty face.  I think that’s what makes the material on Strange Mercy, her third album, so great.  Her previous work has always felt a little too baroque – one too many things in an arrangement that probably wouldn’t be there in the live version, but that’s changed on this album – it feels like everything she did in studio can be replicated elsewhere.  ”Surgeon”, the lead track that previewed the album, showed this new direction.  Only keyboard, guitar, and bass, it has a killer two line chorus (supposedly inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s journals) – “Best finest surgeon/Come cut me open”.  There’s a lot of dark subject matter in St. Vincent’s work, but it’s delivered in the best possible manner.

See also: “Cruel”