St. Vincent Releases Masseduction, Her Sexy Pop Crossover

With Masseduction, her fifth LP as St. Vincent, Annie Clark has given us not only the best album cover of the year, but also her most personal and accessible music yet. The queer singer and multi-instrumentalist co-produced the record with Fun.'s Jack Antonoff -- who's worked with Lorde and Taylor Swift -- and his synthy, new-wave stamp is all over tracks like "Sugarboy," which gallops on a throbbing Bronski Beat-inspired bass line, and "Los Ageless," a glorious hat tip to Depeche Mode's "Strangelove." Clark's guitars still rock, and her token cynicism and irony remain intact (the chorus of the twisted nursery rhyme "Pills," about pharmaceutical dependency, is as addictive as its subject matter). But as she unravels her candid tales of loneliness, paranoia, and kinky sex, she also bares her soul like never before. If this is the sound of St. Vincent going pop, consider us seduced.