St. Vincent - Actor
Critic Score
Based on 30 reviews
2009 Ratings: #55 / 923
Year End Rank: #13
User Score
2009 Rank: #24
Liked by 179 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Entertainment Weekly

Actor is a uniquely potent cocktail of sounds and moods that’ll get you hooked, fast.

100
The Line of Best Fit
It really wouldn’t be hard to wax lyrical for a dissertation’s length about the sheer brilliance of this album. There’s not a dull note or word out of place.
91
A.V. Club
St. Vincent has found her own voice—and it’s one you wouldn’t want reading your kids any bedtime stories.
90
Spectrum Culture
What makes this St. Vincent record outstanding is the maturity of the music. Just about every song pops with an electrical jolt that warrants a few listens to gauge exactly what’s happening.
90
Slant Magazine
Annie Clark’s voice affixes a tight lynchpin to the album’s broadly creative themes, leaving it glistening with ghostly elegance.
90
Consequence of Sound
Clark avoids a sophomore slump by building on her debut’s template and branching off, always staying within her limits.
85
Pitchfork
This fine second album from Annie Clark's project finds the one-time member of Sufjan's band sharpening her songwriting and expanding her arrangements.
82
Coke Machine Glow

What makes Actor an honest-to-God good record—not just a dreamy one—is the way that Clark can use such a simple formula to get such an engaging range of textures.

80
Drowned in Sound

For all the darkness of Actor's concerns ... it remains an exceptionally pleasurable album to listen to.

80
The Irish Times
There’s no shortage of standout tracks on this strange, beguiling and brilliant work.
80
Gigwise
Those prepared to invest their time will most likely find Clarke’s rose and thorn approach enticing and undeniably impressive.
80
Mojo

Actor pushed St. Vincent onto a bigger, grander stage.

80
Uncut
A stunningly audacious second album, inspired equally by prime Prince and film soundtracks, and reminiscent of Jane Siberry's prog-pop ambition circa "The Walking."
80
American Songwriter

Actor does a superior job of polarizing its moods, making them all the more potent when they reach their swell.

80
Sputnikmusic

Actor represents a more defined and daring side of St. Vincent, a side that is rather enticing.

80
DIY
Annie Clark has crafted a haunting, but oddly comforting, musical landscape on ‘Actor’.
80
No Ripcord
Actor often covers the beat of its pulsing innards with sparkling, squeaking accompaniments that somehow manage to frighten and enchant simultaneously. An eerie spiderweb of sound, for sure, and one that Clark crafts masterfully.
80
SPIN
She’s always juxtaposed the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs.
80
AllMusic
This is some of St. Vincent's most complicated music, but its fearless creativity rewards repeated listening, as Clark has few rivals when it comes to seducing ears and challenging minds at the same time.
80
musicOMH
An unpredictable and addictive record which should cement St Vincent's burgeoning reputation as an unnaturally talented songwriter.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
Annie Clark possesses a talent far beyond those of many of her contemporaries and clearly isn't just another girl-with-a-guitar singer/songwriter.
77
Paste
Clark’s lyrics are less overtly clever than on her debut, and they’re more deeply buried in layers of her spastic instrumentation. Nonetheless, they suggest a subtle, abstract intelligence.
70
The 405

It's the kind of album that requires your full attention, if you dip in and out you'll get lost in it and wonder what on earth is going on. But if you leave it to do it's work, it can become a magical fantasia, strange, but magical.

70
Rolling Stone
Tour-de-force arrangements encompass Euro-chanteuserie, rackety synth-pop beats and big, swooning ballads, often in the same song. It's gorgeous and arresting — and, always, sneaky.
70
PopMatters

Actor marks no huge departures her work on Marry Me, but it still manages to constantly surprise, always meshing the earthen with the industrial in strange and compelling ways.

60
Under the Radar
When dissected, there's brilliance to be found in the instrumentation, but it's numbing to listen to the tracks in succession because their most striking quality is ornamentation.
60
NME
Though less immediate than debut ‘Marry Me’, ‘Actor’ is full of charm, picking its way through disorienting rhythm changes and peculiar progressions.
60
The Observer
Those with the patience for deft songwriting willl want to wait for her.
60
Q Magazine
Occasionally it drifts a little too aimlessly, as if recorded under the dulling influence of Prozac, but when she gets it right, she can be entirely, weirdly riveting.
55
Pretty Much Amazing
Bare melodies, bare instrumentals, and bare vocals fill the tracks, making them sound empty and barren.
Host
90

This is like if pop music was made by an alien. It has structures and melodies that are pop to a T, but they're presented in a way that's off slightly. It's like stumbling through the dark, trying to make your way out of it with little to no information. Scary, but in a really cool way.

MasterCrackfox
87

After a stellar debut record Marry Me, Annie Clark as St. Vincent begins to complicate her music with contrasting emotions and continuously elaborate and dense musical accompaniment. At times serene, at others sinister, St. Vincent finds a way to mesh these contrasts into a less experimental but no less exceptional second album.

Actor was heavily inspired by the kind of massive orchestral arrangements one would find in a Disney film, which Clark used as a medium to find her humanity after long ... read more

SnowyFighter
84

There must be something really interesting off camera that she’s staring at

FIREEEE. While I find her debut to be a teeensssy tinnnny bit more consistent, Actor is still unbelievably good for a sophomore record. It’s in the same realm as her first album but it’s just more great songs, like I’m not complaining. The one main difference I did notice is that shows moving from Bjorkisms to Fiona Appleisms lmfao. Obviously that’s not all that defines this but it’s ... read more

jewelbreak
100

St Vincent - Actor ★★★★★

Well i think i left the best for last… Actor is definitely my favourite St Vincent album, the guitars are so freaking addictive and bland, Annie’s voice is so theatrical - matching the album’s narrative - and vibrating, while *that* *production*!!! So nostalgic and radiant.

⧽ Best: All.

Radguy69420
95

Actor? I hardly know her!

fionatheapple
88

one of the best sophomore albums ever delivered, production goes crazy, the violins make me feel like I'm on a horror movie about to be killed, all the emotions floating throughout this project makes me levitate
st vincent !!!!!

Purchasing Actor from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

Sign in to comment
2w
2mo
10mo
1y