ST. VINCENT Actor (2009 UK 11-track CD album - 'Actor', the anticipated 2nd album by St. Vincent [née Annie Clark], takes the ambitious compositional and sonic underpinnings of Clark's debut as a starting point and never looks back. The arrangements are more masterful, the songwriting grander, the performances ever more confident and inspired. Annie developed an idiosyncratic writing process for 'Actor', immersing herself in some of her favorite films – 'Badlands', 'Pierrot le Fou', 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Stardust Memories', 'Sleeping Beauty' - and beginning each song as a secret film score, then slowly giving it independence as its structure and lyrics came fully into focus. The resulting eleven tracks are as cinematic as pop songs can be, but the movie is a private one, revealing its storyline in hushed, cunning couplets and cascades of scathing guitar. Here is a record to listen to with your eyes closed. Melodies are transposed and inverted. The fantasy of Disney is juxtaposed with the sweep of Morricone, David Mamet's unsettling dramatic form and the alienation of Philip Roth. Igor Stravinsky scores Roger Corman's horror flicks.)