Strange Mercy
Encyclopedia
Strange Mercy is the third studio album
by musician St. Vincent, released by 4AD
on September 12, 2011, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States. The album's cover art was designed by St. Vincent, and was photographed by Tina Tyrell. The album peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200
, making it St. Vincent's highest charting album yet. In addition, Strange Mercy received mostly positive reviews from critics.
there, an experience Clark described as a "loneliness experiment" and "a cleanse." The reason she spent time in isolation was to escape from the information overload
she was experiencing with New York and modern technology. Clark arrived in Seattle on October 2010 and stayed at the Ace Hotel. She used a studio provided by Jason McGerr
to record her materials.
The album was first announced in a Twitter
post on January 12, 2011. In early March, producer John Congleton
, who also worked with Clark on Actor, commented that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording the new release. The album was recorded at Elwood Studio in Dallas, Texas
.
In July of 2011, Clark announced that a track from Strange Mercy would be unlocked when enough Twitter
users tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy." During the campaign, teaser videos for the album, which Clark described as riffing on the idea of "strange mercy," were released. On July 22, 2011, a track from the album, "Surgeon," was released as a free MP3 download following the Twitter campaign. On August 25, 2011, a music video for the track "Cruel" was released. The music video, which featured Clark being kidnapped by a motherless family, being forced to be a wife in the family and being buried alive, was filmed around San Francisco and on Mare Island
. On September 4, 2011, Strange Mercy was streamed in its entirety on NPR Music
.
, while "Cheerleader" "has a decidedly feminine point of view." The lyrics "Best, finest surgeon. Come cut me open" in the track "Surgeon" were taken from a line written in Marilyn Monroe
's journal. Clark found that line to be "brilliant and really strange," saying "And I was - I put, you know, inspiration from my own life for various situational depression or what - call it what you will. And this line, best finest surgeon, really resonated with me." The album closer "Year of the Tiger" was written about the depression Clark experienced in 2010, the Year of the Tiger
in the Chinese calender. Clark did not elaborate on what caused her depression.
, the album has a score of 86 out of 100, indicating "Universal Acclaim."
Pitchfork Media
's Ryan Dombal gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "Here, Clark's role-playing is grounded in emotions that are as cryptic as they are genuine and affecting. And when her voice can't bear it, her guitar does the screaming." Drowned In Sound
's Sean Adams also gave the album a positive review, writing, "Don’t be fooled by them saucer-like bambi eyes[...] or her tip-top indie-rock-positioning system[...] because this is an album that rockets toward you, ricochets through your emotions and finally decides to lay you down on the floor, headphones on, tumbling around like a blissed-out cat in the sun." Spin
's Stacey Anderson called Strange Mercy St. Vincent's "most mercurial [album] yet", continuing: "Clark's complex femininity, both self-possessed and keenly evolving, is what makes her music so powerful and fascinating." Q magazine
also gave the album a positive reivew, writing: "Combining elegance and menace expertly, Clark's vocals drift languidly amid swimmy guitars, siren-like choirs and strings, while lyrical undercurrents of anger, hysteria and black humour tug beneath the surface."Arnold Pan of Popmatters
praised the album for balancing experimentation and accessibility, writing "It’s as if Strange Mercy is making the case that high art can have a popular dimension—and the reverse, too, that pop culture can be high-minded and artful. Like peers such as Animal Collective
and Dirty Projectors
, Clark creates challenging music that doesn’t go over your head even though you realize there’s more going on with it than you can wrap your mind around."
In a more mixed review, BBC Music
's Wyndham Wallace called Strange Mercy "a little underwhelming," writing that there was a lack of standout tracks. Wallace continued: "[...] ultimately Strange Mercy sounds like her best record still lies ahead, once she feels a little more at ease with balancing her obviously multiple talents."
ranked the album #11 on its list of the best 50 albums of 2011. The same website also called the track "Cruel" the 13th best song of 2011, writing "The simple lyrics about how hurtful and painful the pressure of looks can have on a person are accompanied by a Talking Heads
-like progression. It is difficult to be upset when this song gets stuck in your head." Q
ranked the album #8 on its list of the top 50 albums of 2011.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by musician St. Vincent, released by 4AD
4AD
4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
on September 12, 2011, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States. The album's cover art was designed by St. Vincent, and was photographed by Tina Tyrell. The album peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, making it St. Vincent's highest charting album yet. In addition, Strange Mercy received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Background and recording
Strange Mercy was written in Seattle while Annie Clark spent time in isolationSolitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
there, an experience Clark described as a "loneliness experiment" and "a cleanse." The reason she spent time in isolation was to escape from the information overload
Information overload
"Information overload" is a term popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book Future Shock. It refers to the difficulty a person can have understanding an issue and making decisions that can be caused by the presence of too much information...
she was experiencing with New York and modern technology. Clark arrived in Seattle on October 2010 and stayed at the Ace Hotel. She used a studio provided by Jason McGerr
Jason McGerr
Jason McGerr is the current drummer for the band Death Cab for Cutie. McGerr was previously in Krusters Kronomid and Eureka Farm as well as the Seattle jazz trio Rockin' Teenage Combo. McGerr is an instructor at the Seattle Drum School when not playing drums for Death Cab for Cutie...
to record her materials.
The album was first announced in a Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
post on January 12, 2011. In early March, producer John Congleton
John Congleton
John Congleton John Congleton John Congleton (born April 5, 1977 in Lubbock, Texas, United States, is best known as a Grammy-nominated producer/engineer/mixer who made a name for himself in the alternative rock underground via production of his own band, The Paper Chase, and for many other artists...
, who also worked with Clark on Actor, commented that he and Clark were nearly a third of the way through recording the new release. The album was recorded at Elwood Studio in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
.
In July of 2011, Clark announced that a track from Strange Mercy would be unlocked when enough Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
users tweeted the hashtag "#strangemercy." During the campaign, teaser videos for the album, which Clark described as riffing on the idea of "strange mercy," were released. On July 22, 2011, a track from the album, "Surgeon," was released as a free MP3 download following the Twitter campaign. On August 25, 2011, a music video for the track "Cruel" was released. The music video, which featured Clark being kidnapped by a motherless family, being forced to be a wife in the family and being buried alive, was filmed around San Francisco and on Mare Island
Mare Island
Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full...
. On September 4, 2011, Strange Mercy was streamed in its entirety on NPR Music
NPR Music
NPR Music launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music discovery. The Web site is a project of National Public Radio, a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797...
.
Lyrics
Strange Mercy was described as being more personal than previous St. Vincent albums. "Chloe In The Afternoon," the album's opener, is about Clark's anxieties over monogamyMonogamy
Monogamy /Gr. μονός+γάμος - one+marriage/ a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse at any one time. In current usage monogamy often refers to having one sexual partner irrespective of marriage or reproduction...
, while "Cheerleader" "has a decidedly feminine point of view." The lyrics "Best, finest surgeon. Come cut me open" in the track "Surgeon" were taken from a line written in Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
's journal. Clark found that line to be "brilliant and really strange," saying "And I was - I put, you know, inspiration from my own life for various situational depression or what - call it what you will. And this line, best finest surgeon, really resonated with me." The album closer "Year of the Tiger" was written about the depression Clark experienced in 2010, the Year of the Tiger
Tiger (zodiac)
The Tiger , is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Tiger is associated with the earthly branch symbol 寅.- Years and the Five Elements :...
in the Chinese calender. Clark did not elaborate on what caused her depression.
Reception
Strange Mercy has received critical acclaim. On the review aggregate site MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the album has a score of 86 out of 100, indicating "Universal Acclaim."
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Ryan Dombal gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "Here, Clark's role-playing is grounded in emotions that are as cryptic as they are genuine and affecting. And when her voice can't bear it, her guitar does the screaming." Drowned In Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
's Sean Adams also gave the album a positive review, writing, "Don’t be fooled by them saucer-like bambi eyes[...] or her tip-top indie-rock-positioning system[...] because this is an album that rockets toward you, ricochets through your emotions and finally decides to lay you down on the floor, headphones on, tumbling around like a blissed-out cat in the sun." Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
's Stacey Anderson called Strange Mercy St. Vincent's "most mercurial [album] yet", continuing: "Clark's complex femininity, both self-possessed and keenly evolving, is what makes her music so powerful and fascinating." Q magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
also gave the album a positive reivew, writing: "Combining elegance and menace expertly, Clark's vocals drift languidly amid swimmy guitars, siren-like choirs and strings, while lyrical undercurrents of anger, hysteria and black humour tug beneath the surface."Arnold Pan of Popmatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
praised the album for balancing experimentation and accessibility, writing "It’s as if Strange Mercy is making the case that high art can have a popular dimension—and the reverse, too, that pop culture can be high-minded and artful. Like peers such as Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
and Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors
The Dirty Projectors aka David Longstreth includes Amber Coffman , Angel Deradoorian , Brian McOmber , Nat Baldwin , and Haley Dekle during live performances...
, Clark creates challenging music that doesn’t go over your head even though you realize there’s more going on with it than you can wrap your mind around."
In a more mixed review, BBC Music
BBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
's Wyndham Wallace called Strange Mercy "a little underwhelming," writing that there was a lack of standout tracks. Wallace continued: "[...] ultimately Strange Mercy sounds like her best record still lies ahead, once she feels a little more at ease with balancing her obviously multiple talents."
Accolades
Strange Mercy has appeared on a few end-of-year lists. PastePaste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
ranked the album #11 on its list of the best 50 albums of 2011. The same website also called the track "Cruel" the 13th best song of 2011, writing "The simple lyrics about how hurtful and painful the pressure of looks can have on a person are accompanied by a Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
-like progression. It is difficult to be upset when this song gets stuck in your head." Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
ranked the album #8 on its list of the top 50 albums of 2011.
Track listing
Personnel
The following people contributed to Strange Mercy:- Daniel Hart - Additional String Arrangements, Violin
- John CongletonJohn CongletonJohn Congleton John Congleton John Congleton (born April 5, 1977 in Lubbock, Texas, United States, is best known as a Grammy-nominated producer/engineer/mixer who made a name for himself in the alternative rock underground via production of his own band, The Paper Chase, and for many other artists...
- Drum Programming, producer - McKenzie Smith - Drum Kit
- Phil Palazzolo - Additional Woodwind Engineering
- Brian LeBartonBrian LeBartonBrian Manuel LeBarton is a keyboardist, composer, and electronic musician from Los Angeles, California.-Work with Beck:Brian LeBarton is the keyboardist and musical director for Beck...
- Additional Keyboards - Lever And Beam, LLC* - Management
- Evan Smith - Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
- Bobby Sparks - Synthesizer (Mini Moog, Arp), Clavinet, Electric Piano (Wurlitzer)
- Annie Clark - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
63 |
| UK Independent Albums UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered... |
19 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
19 |
| US Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels... |
6 |
| Belgium Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... Heatseekers (Flanders) |
6 |
| Belgium Ultratop 40 Ultratop 40 singles, often just Ultratop 40, is the weekly chart of best-selling singles in Wallonia and Brussels Capital Region, the french-speaking parts of Belgium. Its equivalent covering the Flanders region is Ultratop 50. Both charts are produced and published by the Ultratop organization... Heatseekers (Wallonia) |
10 |