St Vincent, “Year of the Tiger” (2011)
find it on Strange Mercy

I don’t know how September’s been where you live, but here in DC, the sun hasn’t come out once in the entire month. Not once! Don’t fact-check that, because I’m telling you that it’s a fact, and isn’t my word good enough for you by now?

The gloom and drizzly, half-assed rain is taking its toll, but the silver lining is that it’s making the new St. Vincent album make sense. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s some pretty crazy shit: intimidatingly complex music that never makes you think “prog”, but often makes you feel like you’ve gone from a quiet, comfortable place to somewhere massively uncomfortable and back again without you being able to figure out how the hell it happened. The menacing feeling is subtle but definite.

“Year of the Tiger” is about as straightforward as the album gets, and it’s fit this day and this week perfectly enough to warrant the repeats its gotten. The surface is ethereal, but the alternately buzzing and woozy synths, the lyrics that push to the edge of sanity, and voices-in-your-head backing vocals keep it disturbingly grounded. It’s as easy an introduction to one of the most startlingly original albums of the year and it feels exactly like my September.

Oh, America…can I owe you one?