Thread by @hock_17

Spent the last little while revisiting the music of St. Vincent after only giving it a cursory glance in past. With early reports of the style of her new album being quite compelling I wanted to prepare myself for that release.

Her first two albums, Marry Me and Actor clearly show some promise and a desire to do whatever she wants. The wide range of styles and influences in these albums was clearly a sign of things to come. #StVincent

Third album, Strange Mercy expands on her talent for experimentation. Actor and Marry Me showed some punky jazz, folk rock and a little Brit pop but those didn’t quite come together. Strange Mercy goes much bigger than that and works. It’s soundtracking a moment in her life.

Love This Giant, her collaboration with Talking Heads’s David Byrne is the turning point in her musical career to this point. It’s difficult to say this is a St. Vincent album because it is dominated by Byrne but working with someone like Byrne perhaps expanded her horizons.

This is an album I was not expecting. It’s self titled and appropriately so. This is St. Vincent showing what she can do on the grandest scale. A massive album in length and sound with some sonic consistency.

Albums of this length rarely fill their running time but this one feels like it could give even more. We’re not talking power ballads here but we are talking a powerful performer. #StVincent

Hopefully not at the apex of her career but when you are able to release three versions of your 6th album it is more than a sign that you are going places. MASSEDUCTION shows St. Vincent’s habit of subverting expectations. It’s original release is packed with 80s electronica pop.

That original release is a quality listen but when you follow it up with a piano and voice only version you can call expectations totally subverted. The piano only version of MASSEDUCTION is her best work yet and is meant to be listened to and heard.

The 3rd version is a two hour long set of electronic remixes. It sounds great but two hours is a chore. Not something you will do every day.

Daddy’s Home expands not on experimentation but on instrumentation and sees St. Vincent’s voice as the most prominent instrument. Plenty of influences from 70s funk to cabaret but it all works. This is the first time so have heard the steel guitar on a St. Vincent album.

Daddy’s Home is an album for you to hear, not one that is just meant to soundtrack your afternoon of housework. #StVincent

Eyes have been opened to the talent of St. Vincent. The influences from Prince to Madonna and 70s funk to 80s rock and Brit pop is astounding. More astounding is her ability to consistently bring all those influences together into a quality package which is only St. Vincent.