“Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood” by St. Vincent

St. Vincent wrote both the words and the music of "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood" for Actor, her second album, which 4AD put out in May 2009. The record had an odd, cinematic birth: to dodge writer's block she watched films with the sound off and composed music for her favorite scenes, with the scores of Disney pictures and Woody Allen movies in her ear, arranged it all in GarageBand, and only afterward added lyrics and soft vocal melodies.

It was also her first record with John Congleton. She had started it with another producer, it went badly wrong, and once Congleton was on board she cut nearly everything again, keeping only the wind and string parts she had labored over. That's a songwriter who builds pop the way other people score movies.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.