With Strange Mercy, the saucer-eyed, stunning, Texan Annie Clark took the beauty of her previous two albums and added a darker edge, more intricate and inventive guitar work and ended up with her best record to date.
The opening of 'Chloe in the Afternoon' sets the tone for the album, a saucy tale of S&M, sung with Clark's delightfully demure voice, and then disrupted by some metallic and destructive guitar playing. Annie Clark has to be one of the finest shredders around at the moment, and her brutal riffing and enigmatic soloing dominates Strange Mercy. Witness the hammering on the repetitive "I, I, I" of 'Cheerleader', or the tricksy yet poppy lines on 'Cruel', or even the discordant punk-funk of 'Dilettante' and you know you're in the presence of greatness.
Even though most of the sensual role-playing sung about by Clark is very much her taking on a character, this doesn't mean there's a lack of emotion on the album. In fact, compared to the surface of Actor, Clark reveals much more of herself on Strange Mercy than we've experienced before as listeners.
It's a swooning, sweet listen, a juxtaposition of Annie Clark's angelic vocals and devilish guitar playing, confirming her position as a unique artist and the finest female performer of 2011.
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