For St. Vincent, aka 24-year-old Oklahoma-born-and-raised singer-songwriter Annie Clark, it’s all about texture. It’s more by design than accident then that the intricate indie multi-instrumentalist rates her favourite song as “It’s No Game (Part 1), David Bowie at his oscillating finest. Or that she reveals her TV show of choice to be multi-layered comedy: Arrested Development.  

The title of this, her debut album is even cribbed from a line from that celebrated programme. Of perhaps more significance however, musically at least, is the appearance on Marry Me of David Bowie’s long-time pianist Mike Garson, who also wrote ‘We Put a Pearl into the Ground’, possibly the saddest song on the record. If not, also, the most uplifting.

Other guests include drummer Brian Teasley and hornblower extraordinaire, Louis Schwadron. Both, like Clark herself, have played with The Polyphonic Spree, the famously sprawling group of choir, duo of keyboardists, flautist, tromboner, pedal steel player et cetera, et cetera. What St. Vincent lacks in numbers compared to DeLaughter’s motley crew, though, she more than makes up for in impact.

(4/5)