3 out of 5

Label: Es Tee Vee Records

Produced by: Annie Clark and Daniel Farris

I can’t help but slot St. Vincent (Ms. Annie Clark) into the batch of somewhat sound-alike enigmatic female indie artists, which is a list I can’t list and thus a grouping I’m probably just making up.  But the material I’ve heard isn’t particularly surprising, so, somewhere in my brain (which we’ll assume, on some level, must take cues from the real world) there exists a template that St. Vincent fulfills.  ‘Paris is Burning’ gives us three variations on the template, with the title track the quirky, moody pop song, middle track ‘What Me Worry’ the sarcastic sing-song, and ‘These Days’ the acoustic number.  ‘Paris is Burning’ is an excellent track, with catching strings underlining its chorus, but lyrically it’s not quite defined enough to hit home.  Thus it remains a catchy chorus.  ‘Worry’s inherent juxtaposition (lyrics to tone) is fun, though the track carries on a bit too long without change.  It’s not quite strong enough as a place holder in such a short EP.  Surrounded by more fleshed out tracks, I could see it becoming a favorite, but as it’s sequenced, its not sandwiched ‘tween enough meat.  The final track, though compositionally perhaps the most basic, is the one that seems to stand out emotionally, finding a right balance of story-telling, accessibility and poetry.  But the wiki link for the song suggests it’s actually a Jackson Browne cover, so… there’s that.

St. Vincent, meanwhile, has assumedly matured much as a group (persona?), as this EP came out toward the start of things.  What’s clear here is Annie Clark’s confidence in her identity as an artist: the songs feel sure of themselves.  But there’s not really a track that grabs you right from the get-go; the three tracks are good, not great.  So perhaps better as a catalogue addition than the first St. Vincent record you buy.