Annie Clark may have slung the axe for the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, but these associations scarcely prepares one for her stunning debut as St. Vincent. "Marry Me" is an album filled with lush, jazz-infused ballads, but Ms. Clark's nuanced soprano voice and ambitious arrangements place this record in a much different league than 99% of the "indie" records you'll hear this year.

Annie Clark is a 23-year-old from Dallas who has seen the world while slinging axe for the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. Yet her association with those two overachieving entities scarcely prepares one for the sheer ambition and accomplishment of Clark's Marry Me album, a gorgeous, precocious and often stunning debut released under the name St. Vincent on Beggars Banquet. The cover art bears more than a passing resemblance to Bjork's own Debut, with a pale gray background and the singer staring dead-on at the camera with eyes that dare you to look away; and this allusion runs deeper than just imagery. Like Bjork, Clark is clearly an intense, iconoclastic, fiercely independent and hugely talented artist, whose vision and drive makes her music almost unclassifiable.

At its core, Marry Me is really just an album of lush, jazz-infused ballads that are lyrically intense and emotional, or playful and wry, or often both; and her nuanced soprano draws the depth from her poetry. But the orchestrations -- from children's chorus to pulsating (yet subtle) electronics, from lush string and horn arrangements to Ms. Clark's own wriggling, swirling, harsh and beautiful guitar playing -- sets this record in a much different league than 99% of the "indie" records you will hear this year. It's probably head and shoulders above most anything you will hear this decade. It takes a lot to surprise me at this point, but St. Vincent has nearly knocked me flat. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as Antony and the Johnsons, Cat Power, Feist, Rufus Wainright, Kate Bush or Joanna Newsom take note; this is a record that you need to hear. [JM] (July 17, 2007)