Masseduction

Whether or not you’re familiar with the creative arc of Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) is not so important when listening to her fifth album, Masseduction. The immediacy of the album’s pop-forward sound, however, could be construed as a departure from the more experimental output of her past. The record is unabashedly fluorescent, practically illuminated even from the outside, and upon spinning opener “Hang on Me,” it’s clear the songwriter has club-banging booty-shakers on her mind. It’s another chapter in Clark’s shapeshifting history, tweaking her identity with an artistic fluidity that’s reminiscent of David Bowie. Masseduction’s “Pills” is a strangely danceable cut about drug dependency, while the title track is an explosive, subversive piece of skuzz-pop that sounds like Beyoncé if she’d spent time at CBGB as a kid. Clark’s affinity for risk-taking has paid off with what is a very buoyant new sound.