St. Vincent - Los Ageless
Los Angeles is one of those cities that inspire musicians to write about it, but the overall California experience seems to be very different from the savage jungle of Guns n' Roses to the place of safety and warmth of The Mamas & the Papas. For Annie Clark, it's a sour place where the shallowness is submitted to plastic surgery to make it look flashy and fabulous; she makes a pun in the title to signal that obsession with eternal youth in a place where "the mothers milk their young".
With potent new-wave synths she wanders aimlessly through the boulevards of this city, contemplating how everything's designed as the mannequins in the shops' windows, she let a few guitar riffs show up, but they are soon engulfed by the twirling synths just like the gigantic waves in her song "they build and build until you don't have escape". It all leads to a monumental chorus where she plays with the repetition of a phrase to find hiding meanings behind it: How could anybody have you? (How is it possible that somebody would be able to possess you?)... And lose you? (If they get to possess you, how could they let you go?)... And not lose their mind too? (And if they let you go, how can they keep going on?).
If it is already a great song in its own merits, Clark works here as the curator in a museum, and makes clear that part of the value of this piece relies on how it was positioned next to others. It is the contrast between this track and her first single "New York", the one that takes the track to new heights. Where New York was tender and nostalgic song, Los Ageless is ferocious and confrontational; she continues the narrative of a heartbreak with a sharp opposition between two cities in the extreme sides of the United States. Having lost that "only motherfucker in this city (New York) who can handle me", she has no desire to live in that place that is full of personal stories, so she crosses the country in search of peace, but what she founds is an alien world, so artificial and unrelatable that is making her face that a change of location won't give her peace of mind after her loss. In any case, the loathe that Clark expresses for the city is only a channel to express her self depreciation: "I'm a monster and you're my sacred cow".
St. Vincent comes fully charged with vibrant narratives and overwhelming sonic textures, she is a boutique pop star (as opposed to pop stars that are consumed by the masses) who is able to embrace the performatic nature of postmodern celebrtities while pushing boundaries of a genre that, she is proof, still has much more to offer if artists are willing to think outside of the (commerical) box.
