Actor by St. Vincent

Actor, St. Vincent's second album, came out on 4AD in May 2009, and Anne Clark built it in the most unusual way: to beat writer's block she watched her favourite movies with the sound off and wrote music for the scenes, borrowing her sense of drama from the scores of Disney films and Woody Allen pictures. The arrangements came together in GarageBand, and only then did she write the words and lay soft melodies over them.

John Congleton produced, and the result is baroque pop with a knife tucked in its stocking. The arrangements swoon like a matinee soundtrack, then Clark's guitar tears through the frame in a spray of distortion; "Marrow" is the prime example, all sweetness until it isn't. The Polyphonic Spree alumna took the songs around North America, Europe and Asia on the Actor Tour, which ran from February 2009 through December 2010.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.