All Born Screaming by St. Vincent

Review written by Enjeans

St. Vincent came out with her album All Born Screaming in April, but I have only heard about it this week. Man have I been missing out! If there wasn’t one thing I liked about a song, there was another thing I did. This album was so creative and the lyrics for the maximum of the songs were amazing.

The album starts with “Hell is Near,” and it is a great start to the album. There is an eerie start, much of the beat drops, and a folk feel is made. The last few lyrics let us see how the narrator feels as if they need to work hard for what is to come. In the end, this song blends with the next song, which makes a seamless continuation of “Reckless.” I enjoyed the lyrics in this song and the change in mood at the end of the song was great. I thought the album was mostly folk, which I can’t complain about, but St. Vincent experiments with genres in this album.

“Broken Man” had an interesting intro. Made me think of video game music, but the lyrics set a different feel. The song seems mellow but surprises you with a loud guitar between lyrics. The guitar was great in this song. The defensive delivery of the lyrics, and the defensive lyrics themselves, was great later in the song. They matched well with the instruments. “I’m just like a hungry little flea.” What a humorous way to start a song! “Flea” is one of my favorites for sure. The comparison of oneself to a flea made me giggle, but St. Vincent makes it work. Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed the lyrics, and again, the delivery. It is upbeat, and the metaphors paint a picture of how attached the narrator is to the person they are talking about. Her intense voice saying “You’ll be mine for eternity,” and it being repetitious shows the determination of the narrator.

St. Vincent’s next songs are all different sounds, keeping me engaged for the next thing. “Big Time Nothing” gave a retro, video game-esque sound at the start. As the song progressed, I got a disco feel from the sound. As the song advances, the instruments, and sounds continue more inchoate, but it worked SO well. She speaks very quickly. I like how fast she is going. I felt “Violent Times” was one of the best illustrations of Vincent’s vocals. I can only describe her voice as seductive. Contrasted to the past songs, not including Hell is Near, she gives a soothing, in a way, delivery, but it is a worrying scene with the lyrics. She has so much emotion in her voice and you can see that best in the end vocals of this song, and the next one, “The Power’s Out.” Similarly, to all the past songs, Vincent’s lyrics set the scene and her voice the mood. Her voice is so expressive in this song. Her voice feels so real. It gives a gothic feel that makes me feel an out-of-body experience, even if that sounds dramatic. Her voice makes me feel sad, and the imagery of the lyrics makes you feel as if you just experienced an unsettling scene, but you just need to march on. It is a beautiful song and one of my favorites on the album.

“Sweetest Fruit” startled me with its unique intro. This song felt hazy to me, filled with a lot of emotion. Lyrics-wise, Vincent talks about death, and those who died young, bringing up two people, Sophie, and Danny. It makes you think about death and “gone too soon.” After such a provoking song, I felt as if the next song, “So Many Planets,” had nothing striking like her other songs on the album. However, her choice of ending song was perfect. I felt as if it encapsulated a “walking into the sunset” ending. As in some of her other songs, It was very upbeat and brought up the mood after an album talking mostly about death. The screams of all the births repeat, creepily, but then resume. “All Born Screaming” had an instrumental ending, but with the repetition of the song title, which was very experimental and ended a great album beautifully.

Death is such a complex subject, and so are the feelings it evokes. St. Vincent’s experimental tracks and journeys through different genres perfectly communicate this journey of accepting death. Her use of lyrics and guitar in general gives a strong voice to a somber subject. Her lyrical abilities help elevate the sound, and I can’t hope to see what she comes out with in the future.