Honestly, I'm super annoyed at both critics and the twitterverse on this one for letting two-cent controversies color coverage and reception of the record. St Vincent and her people have more than a bit of responsibility in it but folks are really showing their foolish side in all of this.

That said, I'm loving the record, too, and it continues to reveal with each listen... like, it wasn't until listen #3 or 4 that I realized the melody to the closing track, Candy Darling, mimics the melody of Melting of the Sun (I think, or one of those earlier tunes). But one more layer, too, because I'm pretty sure there's a bit of self-referencing in that melody as a whole, that it takes after a tune from an earlier SV record... need to dig a bit though.

There's a *definite* self-referencing melody in "The Laughing Man" but again I need to pull out the older records to find it -- my first thought was Dilettante but that's not right, I don't think.

I'm not wild about Live in the Dream but it might grow on me. I absolutely love the second half of the record: Laughing Man, Down, Somebody Like Me, My Baby..., At the Holiday Party, and Candy Darling --- that run is pretty immaculate to me. And "My Baby" has a really vital energy to it, like it's threatening to fall off track somehow, and kind of a genius move to take flip "Morning Train" so successfully and unironically that way.

Some of the production choices are a little "eh" and in a few spots the mix feels thinner than it should (to me). But no complaints here -- it's a top-notch SV record which is always a gift.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~