Heard the album in its entirety Saturday at the RBMALA show.

It’s amazing. Going towards a more conventional pop sound (NY, Los Ageless).

But also has some really experimental shit (Fear the Future, some other songs towards the end I can’t remember).

The drums BANG. Felt them in my chest. And her guitar work is top notch as always. Lots of electro-glam moments. BPMs ranged from like 150 to 50.

Overall first impression is that it could very well be her best LP.

Can’t wait to sit down with the studio versions of the songs and really digest them. Also curious about the credits—Sounwave, Kamasi W, and Jack Antonoff are on it. Drops Friday the 13th.

Btw the live show is dope. She’s solo with her guitar in front of some colorful visuals. Her old songs have all new arrangements. Really reminded me of the DAMN. tour.

Happy 50th D’Angelo: https://chrisp.bandcamp.com/track/d-50

The album she did with David Bryne was my favorite to the point that it kinda spoiled the rest of her music for me. I liked her music before, but then that joint blew my mind. I still like her other music, but it's hard to listen to an album without wanting to just throw on 'Love this Giant'.

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

...Strange Mercy. This definitely has me interested though.

--------------------------------------
I ain't NEVER seen a hungry, happy muthaf*cka!

Heavy Ro'
Jay Rock - Redemption
Roc Marci - RR2
Travis Scott - Astroworld
Taz Arnold - rAd americA

"Prince Johnny" was dope, not looking for the same sound per say but thats the only album of hers I've heard.

PEACE LOVE and MONEY

https://soundcloud.com/dabeatnik/drumpf-beer

2 songs in

www.anwarmorse.com
https://www.instagram.com/thereal_anwarmorse99/

...and that's not a complaint. Really good.

Here’s my song by song take:

Hang on me—first thing I thought of was 808s&HB, production wise. Beautiful song.

Pills—EPIC. Catchy chorus, and the outro is one of the best moments on the album. That Kamasi solo is short and fuzzy. I dig it.

Masseduction—dance track with A LOT of things going on: Japanese vox sample on loop, her sig guitar riffs, robot voices, and a sweeping bridge that made me giggle.

Sugar Boy—probably my favorite on side A. Even more dancey with more going on than the above. I was thinking of Prince, D’s shows (esp What it Do), The Time, etc on that outro. I gotta say, her dance songs BANG now. I loved Hysterical Strength, BiR, etc. But this shit melted my face off.

LA—the most radio-friendly song here. And I love that it’s an evil twin to the other single, NY. Bangs hard.

HB Johnny—heart-breaking piano ballad. Very personal and touching.

Savior—dope guitar riff, with Pino on bass. Even before reading the credits I had a feeling this was the Pino track. Sexiest/kinkiest song on the album.

NY—continues to grow on me, esp in the context of the album. Gotta respect saying “motherfucker” in your lead single/ballad too.

Fear the Future—my favorite as soon as a heard it. Chords reminded me of Jeff Buckley’s What Will You Say. Stadium level rock anthem shit but with dope programmed drums. Most epic 2:30 minute song ever.

Young Lover—didn’t even have a chance to recover from the last one, and then she hit me with THIS. Ups the rock ante. Her vocals at the end are Mariah Carey level.

Slow Disco—beautiful string orgy, with real strings and syths. I’ve always had social anxiety issues, and this shit hit home.

Smoking Section—by far my favorite StV closing song. And as much as people talk about her guitar chops, I’ve always loved her singing just as much. Vocals are deep and close at the start, and then achingly vulnerable at the end “it’s not the end”

Bonus: Power Corrupts—it’s the 200 Balloons to Masseduction’s Batdance. Makes me miss those days when artists regularly released 12” with extended cuts. Toko (from her touring band) on vocals.

Overall I give this motherfucker 10/10.

I look back at Marry Me and Actor and I’m amazed at the progression.

And I never wanted Strange Mercy 2, even though it’s my favorite album.

She’s building a really solid compelling catalogue and no two albums sound the same.

🤘🤘🤘

Happy 50th D’Angelo: https://chrisp.bandcamp.com/track/d-50

although I'm not a big fan of Sugarboy. I actually didn't love Fear the Future on first listen, but it has been growing on me rapidly.

My favorite tracks are Hang On Me, Masseduction, Los Ageless, and Fear the Future.

I do have to say that I like her last album more, but that's not really a knock on this one.

it's one of her band members, Toko Yasuda, who's Japanese. One of the bonus tracks is in Japanese too. She definitely tryna get in that market, so she can tour there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYLCrGOY_eQ

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/st-vincent-masseduction/

Is Jack Antonoff's whole MO convincing artists that they should make more amelodic torch songs, cus that seems to start happening more with every artist he works with. Anyway, this is up there with Actor as my least favorite SV album (which doesn't mean much because she consistently makes great songs but still).

I hear that criticism of a lot of the music I like, and I never really know what that means.

For MASSEDUCTION I can hum most (if not all) of the songs’ melodies when I think of them. Mostly her vocals parts, but a lot of her riffs too (the title track, Sugarboy, LA, Savior, etc).

Is there something more to a melodic song than that?

I always thought it’s because I’m primarily a hip hop head, and I pay attention more to rhythms and hooks (and I don’t mean “hooks” as in choruses!). And/or cuz I’m more moved by chord changes and vocal harmonies (huge D’ fan).

Anyways, any insight is appreciated.

Happy 50th D’Angelo: https://chrisp.bandcamp.com/track/d-50

A sign of a good melody is that it has a kind of arc or curve, where the notes progressively go up (or down) and then come back down (or up). The trick is to vary the steps between the notes, so it doesn't sound like you are just going up and down the scale (though that can sound cool too). There are parts of the first single, New York, where you want her to take a large step upwards but she keeps it all in the same range. She saves the larger steps for the chorus and keeps the movement in the verses to smaller steps. There also isnt a lot going on in the song harmonically. The melody she is singing is literally mirroring the piano part with no chords underneath even for rhythmic flavor. The lack of movement in the melody only reinforces the simplicity of the harmony. They go hand in hand. This is a really great explanation on writing melodies. In fact this whole series is just incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIk3bJtTNw

Now I obviously get what she is trying to do, I just find it uninteresting. I'm not listening to a St Vincent record because I want something relate-able. I want that alien shit with the crazy arrangements and the challenging vocals that sound deceptively easy. Throw some riffs in there and you got what makes her records hers. Granted, at least half the new album is exactly this so I can't complain. A lot of it is a really great progression of the sound she introduced in her last album, but with some really great drum programming.

Now St Vincent is obviously a song writing genius. If this is the record she released it's because it's intentional. But there are other people Jack Antonoff worked with that go for the same torch song vibe and I can't fucking stand it. That green light single that Lorde released is turrrible. Most of the stuff I hear Pink releasing now is too, which is a shame. But there is a sizable audience for that kind of stuff I guess.

A good way to see how melodic something is how interesting the melody sounds if you hummed it...not just the fact that it is hummable. If it sounds more like a drum part that keeps looping then you have a problem. My favorite kind of songs are ones that are through-composed, where the music is different in each stanza. If the melody does repeat, then either the context it is in is slightly different or the melody is being embellished in a certain way. Instead of the melody as something that's only a couple of bars, its more like a little world that has implied rules about how it can keep unfolding over music. A good example of this would be Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" or a number of Fiona Apple's songs or Bohemian Rhapsody.

Hip-hop has simple, loopable melodies but the way rappers flow over that melody provides an INSANE amount of embellishments. Musicians love a great verse because there is so much musicality that's being implied. You can play them on an instrument and the notes just write themselves over all the rhythmic figures. Rhythm and melody are connected at a very, very deep primordial level. If you really want you mind blown, then watch this explanation of harmonic poly-rhythms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gCJHNBEdoc

>A sign of a good melody is that it has a kind of arc or
>curve, where the notes progressively go up (or down) and then
>come back down (or up). The trick is to vary the steps between
>the notes, so it doesn't sound like you are just going up and
>down the scale (though that can sound cool too). There are
>parts of the first single, New York, where you want her to
>take a large step upwards but she keeps it all in the same
>range. She saves the larger steps for the chorus and keeps the
>movement in the verses to smaller steps. There also isnt a lot
>going on in the song harmonically. The melody she is singing
>is literally mirroring the piano part with no chords
>underneath even for rhythmic flavor. The lack of movement in
>the melody only reinforces the simplicity of the harmony. They
>go hand in hand. This is a really great explanation on writing
>melodies. In fact this whole series is just incredible.
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIk3bJtTNw
>

Dope, I’ll check this out.

>Now I obviously get what she is trying to do, I just find it
>uninteresting. I'm not listening to a St Vincent record
>because I want something relate-able. I want that alien shit
>with the crazy arrangements and the challenging vocals that
>sound deceptively easy. Throw some riffs in there and you got
>what makes her records hers. Granted, at least half the new
>album is exactly this so I can't complain. A lot of it is a
>really great progression of the sound she introduced in her
>last album, but with some really great drum programming.
>

I read in one of her recent interviews talking about how she much she liked Eye Would Die 4 U, in part because of its simplicity (only a two-note melody???) and doing so much with so little. That’s the kinda shit that gets me off too.

And yeah, like you, I too love her alien stuff. Something like Cruel blew me away when I really digested it. How she plays that guitar riff and sings the chorus. Or how the “bodies...” part progressively builds throughout the song. AND even with all that going on it’s catchy.

>Now St Vincent is obviously a song writing genius. If this is
>the record she released it's because it's intentional. But
>there are other people Jack Antonoff worked with that go for
>the same torch song vibe and I can't fucking stand it. That
>green light single that Lorde released is turrrible. Most of
>the stuff I hear Pink releasing now is too, which is a shame.
>But there is a sizable audience for that kind of stuff I
>guess.
>
>A good way to see how melodic something is how interesting the
>melody sounds if you hummed it...not just the fact that it is
>hummable. If it sounds more like a drum part that keeps
>looping then you have a problem. My favorite kind of songs are
>ones that are through-composed, where the music is different
>in each stanza. If the melody does repeat, then either the
>context it is in is slightly different or the melody is being
>embellished in a certain way. Instead of the melody as
>something that's only a couple of bars, its more like a little
>world that has implied rules about how it can keep unfolding
>over music. A good example of this would be Kate Bush's
>"Wuthering Heights" or a number of Fiona Apple's songs or
>Bohemian Rhapsody.

I love those epic songs too that progress like that.

But I also really love shit like Jonz in my Bonz, or The Periphery, or Every Tear Disappears—all of which give me a strong emotional response even thought they might be relatively simple.

Happy 50th D’Angelo: https://chrisp.bandcamp.com/track/d-50

it's deceptively simple. Yet there are implied bass lines that are going up and down like CRAZY. you could play all kinds of chords over this, he just doesn't bother spelling them out. damn, I'm glad I listened to this again lol. And now that you mention it, the opening synth part of title track from Masseduction sounds like the the rhythm from I Would Die 4 U. St Vincent (post Strange Mercy) likes to emphasize rhythm over melodic development in a very intelligent and exciting way. But a song like New York doesn't really do either. Although there is definitely a good melody in there.

But if you really want to hear someone take a simple four note melody and turn it into a literal symphony, then look no further than Beethoven's 5th symphony. Just that introductory motif has an down-up-down melodic structure but on the tiniest scale step-wise. It's all held together by the short-short-short-long rhythmic figure. This is one of the best analysis I've heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4hZY5h84Wc&t=907s

2:26-2:46....pure adrenaline and eargasm, every time. Can't wait to see that shit live.

NY https://youtu.be/woM1X_LqEo8
Slow Disco https://youtu.be/_on0iLszgH8

Happy 50th D’Angelo: https://chrisp.bandcamp.com/track/d-50