Masseduction
| St. Vincent
Masseduction
Masseduction (stylized in all caps) is the fifth studio album by American musician St. Vincent. It was released on October 13, 2017, through Loma Vista Recordings. The album peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200, becoming her first top ten album in the United States. The album also received universal acclaim and was the fourth-most mentioned in critics' year-end lists for 2017. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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U Discover Music
2018 - a record with great depth. It may well turn out to be her statement piece.
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Pitchfork
2017 - isn’t a pop album so much as a deeply, admittedly personal communique with a pop veneer. The songs tear into the feeling of leaving and having been left alone.
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Rolling Stone
2018 - an object lesson in how sonic switch-ups can offer new insights into even the most idea-dense material.
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The Guardian
2017 - most of the distress on Masseduction comes not from a dark night of the soul but from more practical concerns
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Consequence of Sound
2017 - it’s her willingness to follow whims, to push herself, and to take her audiences along for the ride that does it for her
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Entertainment Weekly
2018 - serves as a testament to her versatile songwriting and remarkable vocal strength
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Texas Monthly
By album’s end, the nature of her canonization has become clear: St. Vincent is the patron saint of chaos.
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AV Club
2017 - a manual on how to go through hell and back, then emerge stronger than ever. It’s a record that wrests control from turmoil and believes that a different, better future is possible. It’s the best encapsulation of her vision to date, here fully under her control.
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Slant Magazine
2017 - Clark’s baroque musical sensibilities remain intact throughout Masseduction, but the increased tenderness of her vocal performances, coupled with more thematic emphasis on the push and pull of romantic relationships, offers a moving counterweight to St. Vincent’s typically wry cultural commentary.
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KSLU 90.9
Masseduction is a beautiful gift from St. Vincent that is worth the listen.
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Vulture
2017 - Masseduction’s experiment in matching Clark’s wily rock and funk sensibilities to rap and pop hitmakers’ bells and whistles yields better results than expected
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Crack magazine
it’s definitely her most convincing performance yet
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American Song Writer
2017 - Clark the sensitive soul we’re hearing, it’s always preferable to the distant conceptual figure she sometimes leans back on.
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Post Trash
2017 - St. Vincent was a both housewife worn thin and a futuristic cult leader, MASSEDUCTION is the version of Clark that hyper-realizes her inherent perfectionism.
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Pop Matters
2017 - the album does have some great moments, and it bodes good things for the trajectory of St. Vincent's ongoing career
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Classic Pop magazine
“Masseduction will doubtless sustain her ascent. It’s a carefully crafted, accomplished collection of art-pop perfectly suited to providing as many talking points as singalongs.” – Wyndham Wallace
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All Music
Masseduction delivers sketches of chaos with stunning clarity. It's the work of an always savvy artist at her wittiest and saddest.
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Canvas and Cassette
It’s beautifully written, both lyrically and musically, and one of my top albums of 2017.
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Northern Transmissions
2018 - MASSEDUCTION is an album that mixes themes like it does liquor in a cocktail, but above all it’s an album that puts aside metaphor and pageantry to show us exactly what goes on in Clark’s head. As it turns out, it’s just as interesting and beguiling as anything she’s ever released.
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Spill Magazine
Masseduction tends to draw you in, like all good records should
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No Ripcord
2017 - Her artifice of style has always relied on a range of imperfect decisions, a musical savant that can make the conventional sound downright inventive. Clark has achieved this a total of four times, and even on here, there’s the promise of another knockout.
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Brooklyn Vegan
2017 - one of those albums that really ebbs and flows and takes you on a trip, and it ends on one of its highest notes
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The 405
2017 - The extraneous elements of the album roll-out campaign – the Instagram clips, the videos for ‘New York’ and ‘Los Ageless’, the performances on late night shows etc. – all feel of a piece; crucial to the understanding of Masseduction as an artistic statement, not merely just an album.
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Sputnik Music
2017 - It takes some time to get past the initial discomfort that comes with MASSEDUCTION’s brazen and divergent antics, but at the end of the road there’s quite a good record worth delving into. You might end up being surprised by how much of yourself you see in St. Vincent’s “weirdest” offering to date.
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Under the Radar
MASSEDUCTION has set the bar high for the rest of the indie rock universe and proves that St. Vincent is a truly unique talent that is both innovative and entertaining.
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Dozens of Donuts
A few bright spots can't dissuade the poor directional choices St. Vincent has made in an attempt at maintaining relevance.
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Riffs and Rhymes
2018 - It’s vibrant, crazy, and like everything else St. Vincent has released thus far, it’s too bold to not be discussed.
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Cult #MTL
2017 - Fans of St. Vincent will instantly recognize the creative constellation that makes up Annie Clark’s signature aesthetic on this fifth record, from the bursts of guitar genius to the masterful use of the synthetic sonic palette to her curious melodic turns and impressive vocal flexibility.
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Drowned in Sound
2017 - It’s a genuine masterpiece: complex, funny, sexy, bleak, uplifting, inspiring and enthralling from start to finish.
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Spectrum Culture
2017 - the most personal and engaging album of her career
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The Young Folks
2017 - The album is an evolution of sorts, and naturally it would be after three years time to grow and change, but its biggest surprise is that it feels personal.
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Gigwise
2017 - Masseduction is a work of genius light years ahead of its indie, rock and pop counterparts.
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Edinborrow Now
2017 - The album is personal and well done, and it knows it. “Masseduction” contains the completeness that other artists in indie pop and alternative rock are striving to attain in 2017.
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Music OMH
2017 - It’s the sort of record where your favourite song could change on each listen
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Exclaim!
2017 - Clark promised us "sex and drugs and sadness" on MASSEDUCTION, and while that sounds like a recipe for clichéd disaster, she kept her word and managed to fashion a totally refreshing take in the process.
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Sound Lab
2017 - Masseduction seems to be about a relationship running it's course and, as such, it's sometimes big and brash and confident, and sometimes soft and sad and fragile.
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Kentucky Kernel
2017 - an enjoyable listen for old and new listeners alike. It’s St. Vincent in her prime, bringing a worthy successor to her self-titled album that doesn’t necessarily outdo it but works brilliantly as a companion piece, showing a different side of a multifaceted artist.
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The Paper
2017 - All in all, MASSEDUCTION is a triumphant transformation for St. Vincent, and quite possibly my favorite album of the year.
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Ear Bussy
2017 - another Annie Clark album that sounds absolutely fantastic. It’s an album of great propulsion that keeps the toes tapping and the hits coming.
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The Fire Note
2017 - And so it goes on Masseduction, it can be warm and close, or cold and hard, but it’s impossible to ignore.
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DIY Magazine
2017 - dissecting the darkest of melancholy in the same step - ‘MASSEDUCTION’ is a lesson in black humour. Along with the equally exceptional ‘St Vincent’ which came before it, this is the moment that St Vincent enters the fabled realm reserved for the greats.
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Moggs Blog
It’s definitely one of the best albums of 2017.
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Treble Magazine
it’s consistently enjoyable and occasionally striking
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Vunyl Culture
MASSEDUCTION is not a musical journey, yet a musical process, set to the tone of purposeful “pop” if you will
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Boston Globe
2017 - St. Vincent’s ‘MASSEDUCTION’ is her first bona fide masterpiece
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Music ab Other Thingz
2017 - Those songs are masterful in the way they’re written to shock and lull you into a false sense of security with musical transitions to accentuate these features.
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The Musical Hype
2017 - St. Vincent shines on Masseduction. This is an intriguing album that incorporates ample pop cues, but still retains alternative sensibilities. Masseduction is driven by issues surrounding love and sex, naturally intriguing topics. Annie Clark herself is nothing short of intriguing.
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ACRN.com
2017 - Muted, lolling bass beats, intimate lyrics and the hint of *ahem* seduction hold up the album’s image.
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The Quietus
2017 - Annie Clark's extraordinary new album: thirteen songs of fractured identity that form a cohesive, compelling whole.
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Soul Feeder
2017 - Love has in fact the prominent role in this ironical jingle. The sensuality of human relationships, with the inevitable torment that comes along, call to mind a shredded piece inside each and everyone of us.
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Independent Music Promortions
2017 - Masseduction is filled with exciting songs and Clark finds a new quivering low in her tone, but it’s not nearly as solid start to finish, as St. Vincent. It’s a mere half-step from that album, but easily ranks as one of the best put out in 2017.
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Albumism
2017 - Clark’s star shines so bright it is tough to take issue with anything. Her voice is violin-like, manic with emotion. Her guitar playing is unparalleled, a Jack White/Prince composite, raised on King Crimson.
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Young Post
2017 - full of variety and infectious sounds ... The experimental art-rocker’s fifth album is as good as anything else she’s produced before
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Independent
2017 - her most personally revealing, focusing on themes of “power and sex, imperiled relationships and death”. So: life itself, and all that good stuff.
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The Stute
2017 - Masseduction exhibits lyrics that resonate with our generation. Clark excels whether discussing panic and anxiety for the future, or a breakup.
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The Student Playlist
2017 - one of the best and consistent listens of the year, and one of the most meta-challenging albums of her career
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Immortal Reviews
2017 - St. Vincent keeps things fresh in Masseduction, again creating some powerful and interesting songs while still maintaining integrity.
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Cuckoo Review
2017 - Emotionally perceptive, varied and clever, Masseduction is a remarkable creative achievement which shows that Clark is inheriting the legacy of Prince and David Bowie, the great innovative musicians of the last forty years.
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The Skinny
2017 - The extremes of emotions are covered on Masseduction: the highs and lows of love, heartbreak and just general life.
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FACT Magazine
2017 - MASSEDUCTION takes the themes Clark has been chewing on for the last 10 years and, now with more eyes on her than ever before, makes them throb in new, startling ways.
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Now
2017 - With an incisive take on the complexity of desire, anxiety and confusion, Annie Clark captures what it's like to live in this present
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Medium
2017 - The art-rock queen goes pop, with fascinating results.
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Clash OMH
2017 - much of the chaos on ‘MASSEDUCTION’ tends to move rapidly in one ear and out the other, making it a pleasant but somewhat faceless affair
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Stars and Scars
2017 - Annie Clark, the queen of girl power herself, has hit another home run with her fifth album as St. Vincent.
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Higher Plain Music
2017 - blissfully miserable music that you’ll jam to
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Bernard Zuel
2017 - This is an album rich with the many sides of desire and need, that encompasses elevation and subsequent – or sometimes concurrent – destruction. And it stares into that void without blinking.
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Daily Bruin
irrefutably St. Vincent’s most impressive release – it has everything a listener could want and more: interesting lyrical content, upbeat melodies next to ballads and most importantly, stellar vocals
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Loud and Quiet
2017 - The result is a fierce, histrionic, riotous and deceptively beautiful record that, for the all the confessionalism, retains St Vincent’s alluringly enigmatic presence. Long may the mystery endure.
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Spectrum Pulse
2017 - it takes a solid theme and deepens it with real color
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Varsity
2017 - It’s at turns heartfelt, melancholic, sentimental, sexual and destructive. But through it all it manages to be utterly captivating.
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The Courier
2017 - This album exclusively gives us an intimate insight into Annie Clark’s personal ordeals, whilst combining an elevated experimental soundscape in comparison to her former albums.
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Ultimate Guitar
2017 - another great album
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Timeout
2017 - she hits such heights that merely good songs like ‘Savior’ and the title track almost feel like letdowns
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The Yale herald
2017 - Masseduction is an album that confuses me. If this is your first experience with St. Vincent, your perception of this album will probably be different, and most likely positive.
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Post-Grad Music Reviews
This album is a borderline-masterpiece, if not one outright.
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Too Many Blogs
2017 - Extraordinary invention and confidence reigns; the lyrics are compelling and vivid. It’s another step forward from an individual whose role cannot be understated.
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Arena
2017 - St. Vincent's widely anticipated new album has bite to match its fascinating bark.
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Salute Magazine
2017 - Masseduction’s songs meet at the intersection of raw and glossy and that is a formula that Clark will either build upon or abandon after flirting with mass appeal.
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Scene and Heard
2017 - You can’t help but fall in love with her newfound vulnerability. The reasons behind this opening up may be sad, but the results are astounding.
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Inspirer
2017 - MASSEDUCTION’s production is rich and layered. It’s a journey through the trials and tribulations of being on the fringe and the floor.
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12 BY 16
this is a multilayered project that is a definite highlight in her discography and surely one of the best releases of 2017
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Metro
2017 - An electric shock of robotic rock music with a very human heart, head and voice, Masseduction buzzes with intriguing contradictions. ... It is bright, bold, absurd, cheeky, uncomfortably real and almost too damn good to be true.
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Stack
Masseduction ultimately makes for a giddy, entirely commanding listen.
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Vinyl Me, Please
2017 - a neck-snapping magnum opus
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Buzz Feed News
If not a clear pane, then Masseduction is at least a peep show on heartache, fucking, addiction, destitution, and suicide.
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WCYT The Point 91
2017 - provides for a new sound for both genres of pop and alternative. ... I enjoyed the unique sounds of the album and the compelling lyrics making St. Vincent an asset to the music industry.
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Paste Magazine
2017 - On MASSEDUCTION, Clark remains as unpredictable as ever, though there’s one thing fans will have gotten right: so far, at least, Annie Clark has proven incapable of writing anything less than a knockout pop song.
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Spin
I’m much more attracted to MASSEDUCTION’s humbler moments, when you can better imagine the songs without the heavy arrangements.
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