All Born Screaming - St. Vincent: Review

St. Vincent

While I never really fully came around on some of St. Vincent's earliest material, for a full decade now she's been on a stylistic elevation and creative ascent that I've absolutely adored. It's hard to say exactly where it peaked, but when we last heard from Annie Clark she was in her Young Americans era on an album I loved in 2021. Now she's onto something grittier, darker, and even more explosive than ever before. While much of the album lives up to its predecessors, it doesn't quite stick the landing in the same way. 

The album got off to a strong start when I liked its first two singles a lot. Broken Man came first and it's an absolute ripper worthy of St. Vincent's always incredible lead singles. The gritty production and instrumentation pair perfectly with an absolutely swagger-packed vocal performance from Annie that absolutely kills. I also loved Flea which once again delivered more muscle than your average St. Vincent track. This one also comes with a dreamier side that shows just how hard its most brutal moments are in contrast. 

Among the deep cuts are some huge highlights. Reckless is an isolating song but Annie is more than prepared to fill that space with her commanding vocals. It almost has a Beth Gibbons Portishead feel as her vocals fill up the expanse even at their softest. Combined with her typically evocative and extremely visual lyricism and the absolute eruption in the second half and this is a smash hit. Similarly Violent Times is one of the darkest and most dramatic songs here and I like it a lot. The way it builds momentum is so tangible and the way it gets better and better moment to moment is incredibly satisfying.  

I'm also pretty fond of the opener Hell Is Near which is a dense and atmospheric start to the album by St. Vincent standards. It has these distant wailing guitars that wander into an incredibly unpredictable instrumental pattern. The lyrics make a direct reference to The Nowhere Inn which feels fitting as the film's descent into chaos is well-mirrored by the way this song makes me feel across the second half. That same atmosphere is present on The Power's Out but the song is much closer to a ballad. Once again it has an icy almost trip-hop-flavored instrumental with these distant steady drums and layered walls of synths. Even though the tune itself isn't one of the best here the song sounds spectacular. 

Speaking of, So Many Planets has a similar result. It has a pretty dizzying instrumental display and a bridge that flat-out rules I just wish she did a bit more to build around it. The closing track and title track All Born Screaming is a full 7 minutes and features contributions from Cate Le Bon. It starts out as one of the gentler and more inviting tracks on the record and takes a much more extended approach to an eventual build-up. It's an expansive finale to the record even if I'm not sure it uses its entire runtime wisely. 

I wasn't crazy about the record's third single Big Time Nothing. I like the funkier flavors on the song and it kind of reminds me of Daddy's Home. But the song itself does very little for me with how much awkward space is left in its composition. Sweetest Fruit is my least favorite song here for a few reasons. For a start, it contains a deeply bizarre and frankly totally fumbled attempt at a Sophie tribute. There are some interesting bells and whistles but the song also had the worst hook and least interesting composition here. 

All Born Screaming is a good record that never quite reaches the level of a great record. Where other St. Vincent records have perfectly placed deep cuts to work through their denser tracklists, All Born Screaming is FAR more enjoyable in its first half than its second. That doesn't mean the record is a loss though. Annie Clark certainly continues her trend of delivering a handful of absolute classics with every new release and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I loved some of these deep cuts. I think it's safe to say that All Born Screaming is a success despite being compared to the very high bar Clark has set for herself over the years. 7/10