St. Vincent Follows the Success of ‘Cruel Summer’ With the Dark, Weird and Oddly Accessible ‘All Born Screaming’: Album Review
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The career move after St. Vincent’s unexpected windfall from “Cruel Summer” — the song that began life as a collaboration between her and producer Jack Antonoff, was completed by Taylor Swift and, several years later, ended up as the theme song of the “Eras Tour” juggernaut — would be to make a pop-leaning album to capitalize on that success, even just a little.
True to form, that’s exactly what the artist also known as Annie Clark has not done with her eighth studio album, “All Born Screaming,” which, as the title implies, may be the darkest and strangest outing in her discography.
Which isn’t at all to say that this album is inaccessible or a tough listen — she’s always balanced melody with noise, beauty with awkwardness, usually at the same time, declining to be any one thing musically or visually.
There’s plenty of her distinctively arch melodies, soaring vocals and memorable songwriting; there’s also lots of warped synthesizer textures, propulsive rhythms, mildly discomfiting lyrics and her awesomely jagged, aggressive guitar playing.
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