MASSEDUCTION

As great of a musician St. Vincent is, writing strong catchy pop hooks has never been her strongest suit, the appeal of Clark’s music (at least up to this point) has always been her expertise in weaving experimentation and unique, almost manic soundscapes into songs with (relatively) conventional structures and melodies. With “Masseduction” being a much more “mainstream”-sounding pop record, I expected Annie Clark and her collaborators to up their game in terms of crafting chorus earworms. However “Masseduction” largely exists in a disappointing middle-ground, where the melodies aren’t catchy enough for it to be a fun record nor weird enough to be an interesting one. There are also way too many inclusions of mundane, slow, acoustic ballads in what is essentially a dancey album for me to call it a focused effort either. The album is not absent of great songs though, but almost all of them are in the first half, after the absolute highlight that is “Los Ageless”, the album falls off quite significantly and doesn’t pick back up until the closer.

Therefore, “Masseduction” ends up being… okay. I wouldn’t call it a misstep considering the concept of the record sonically is still interesting and there are still a handful of enjoyable moments, I just wished that Clark had honed in on the synthpop/alternative dance direction and had more polished hook-writing skills. Because “Masseduction” could’ve been great, if not excellent.

Favs: Los Ageless, Pills, Masseduction
Least Fav: Savior