SPOTLIGHT: Masseduction (& MassEducation) by St. Vincent
The time is here, dear listeners! The results of our recent poll can finally be revealed! You voted, and apparently you just couldn't make up your minds, since two records tied for first place: 2017's Masseduction by St. Vincent (AKA Annie Clark) and 2019's All Mirrors by Angel Olsen! And because TRAPPO is TRAPPO, we have decided to review them both. Not on the same episode, mind you, since we believe both of these works deserve their own time in the sun. So this week, we present to you the first part of our two-part discussion, focusing on St. Vincent's Masseduction and its 2018 follow-up, MassEducation. We simply couldn't discuss one without the other, since the two records are inextricably linked, so you're actually getting a double album discussion on today's episode, you lucky devils! So what do we think of Masseduction? You'll have to listen to find out! You can find the episode below, or check us out on Apple, Google, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Spotify and Anchor, so choose your own adventure and don't turn off what turns me on...
Join the conversation! Leave a comment below telling us what you think of Masseduction, and while you're at it, suggest some topics for future episodes! Of course, if you're feeling more verbose, you could always send us an email, which we always appreciate. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram for the complete TRAPPO experience! We'll be back next week with our All Mirrors discussion, so don't forget to come back for that. And once again, thanks to everybody who voted in our poll. The turnout was fantastic, and we really appreciate your enthusiasm. You can rest assured there will be more polls in the near future here at TRAPPO, so be on the lookout for that.
Until then, thanks for listening!
I think the parallels between the two records are fascinating and I appreciate how you directly compared both versions of a few tracks. Stories like this are always very interesting because MassEducation is so much more interesting than just a remix album, which Masseduction also has, coincidentally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that MassEducation is obviously more cohesive, because how could it not be? But Masseduction is ultimately a stronger work for me, warts and all. Annie Clark conjured some aggressive, dirty synth pop and twisting it all into something so disarming and personal and just plain fucking cool. What a fucking rock star.
Now do her self-titled album, you cowards!
This stuff never did much for me. There’s some good tracks, but I wouldn’t call Mass Seduction amazing overall. I was really hoping Blood Red Shoes would win.
ReplyDeleteWe all know St. Vincent's a fucking genius. This isn't news. I voted for Masseduction because I had to. But I'm so glad that the final vote ended up a tie, because All Mirrors is phenomenal in its own right. Angel Olsen is amazing and she's still sort of flying under the radar for a lot of people, which sucks. But she's not some unknown artist, toiling in obscurity. Olsen just needs more people to hear her gorgeous shit, and the world will be a better place. I'm loving Big Time so far, by the way. Lovely music, boys! I do like the idea of fussing with the tracklist to end Masseduction with "Fear The Future". I'm gonna have to do that. Masseduction is absolutely great, but I have to agree with the supremely sexy Paisley Jaguar and insist that you Trappers cover St. Vincent's self-titled record. SOON. We have spoken.
ReplyDeleteTRAPPO's Power Couple has spoken! A very special episode covering St. Vincent from St. Vincent will be conjured into being! Our positive vibes will make it so! Can you feel our positive vibes radiating through the interwebs, tickling your pre-fontal cortexes, Trappers? We will influence your thoughts with our mind waves!
DeleteOr you could just talk about Big Mess. I think we'd all be okay with that consolation prize. Can Danny Elfman and St. Vincent collaborate on something tomorrow? Maybe we should use our mind waves to make that happen. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go bug the hell out of Danny Elfman on Facebook.
Keep TRAPPO Weird.
The Sack is back!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear the Trappettes discuss St. Vincent by St. Vincent as much as the next bunch of perverts who really need to get a room, but that's being unrealistic. They're not going to go back to that well so quickly, and we all know it. They haven't repeated themselves yet, after all, and no artist has two records in the canon so far. We need to start recommending stuff that they might actually talk about in the not too distant future, so I've got a suggestion for you pals.
Are you ready for this? CTM. That's right. CTM. I don't know what it means. I don't even know if it means anything. All I know is the music is tighter than a narwhale's blowhole when they're fully submerged. My friend who runs a head shop turned me onto this stuff last year with their previous record called Red Dragon and I think it's primo stuff, kids. The cello is pretty prominently featured, so that's cool. ANd the music is dreamy and kind of amorphous, floating around on an imagined breeze under a sky full of twinkling stars.
I ate a big bowl of Lucky Charms for dinner yesterday because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was listening to CTM's new record Baby Girl and my cereal was like a whole experience I can't even begin to describe. Have you ever gone on a fucking journey while eating a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night because you were super high and listening to some trippy music? I still don't know where I went, but when I woke up in the morning, that empty cereal bowl was in a hundred pieces on the fucking shower floor and I was wearing a mismatched pair of socks, but I wasn't wearing socks at all the night before, so I don't know what the hell that means, except that this CTM stuff is wonderful, like that floaty feeling you get when you drink maybe a little too much cough syrup in the morning because you're all congested and you just sort of drift along lazily for a few hours at work and you don't really care about anything because everything's just cool, man. Climb aboard the CTM Express and let's take this cross-country trip through a drowning world of fuzzy memories and hallucinatory visions together.
And is "Keep TRAPPO Weird" just a thing we say now? Because I could get behind that.
We've already moved on, Sack. We're focusing all our mind bullets on Danny Elfman now, so you gotta get with the program. And we already got a room, Sack. There's a sock on the doorknob and everything, so give us some privacy if you please. Unless you wanna join in. There's always room for one more. Or you could just sit in the corner and watch. We don't judge, Sack. Whatever floats your boat.
DeleteI’ll just give you kids some privacy, I guess. I don’t know if I’m ready for things to get too weird just yet. I gotta ease into the perversion like I’m slipping into a warm bath. Maybe I’ll just peep through the keyhole for a while. But I will gladly focus my own mental prowess on conjuring a Big Mess discussion into reality. That I can do. And I can make it weird.
DeleteI like all sorts of music. I don’t want to limit myself to any specific genres or artists, because the good shit’s all around. You just have to be willing to look for it. Get your soft hands dirty and dig around a while, and you’ll find the good stuff. Maybe you didn’t have to dig too deep to find Masseduction, but it’s a worthy entry in the canon just the same. Mainstream isn’t necessarily a bad word. The fucking Beatles are mainstream, and only a fool would argue their music isn’t worthy.
ReplyDeleteBut I always get a happy little tingle when I find some shit that the other kids just don’t seem to know about. Is it petty to feel that way? Maybe, but I think I can safely say just just about every regular listener of this show (yes, all 17 of us) is quite familiar with that particular feeling, because we keep sharing our own recommendations with the Trappers, and sometimes they even talk about those recommendations. On purpose. It’s a cool thing to see, and I think we all appreciate that. So thanks for taking us seriously. Thanks for listening to us, your dear listeners.
In that vein, I’d like to introduce our happy little band to a record called DANZ from Computer Magic, AKA Danielle Johnson. She’s an eclectic electro pop artist who hasn’t found a huge audience in America, but like Tom Waits, she’s big in Japan, where she’s released three successful albums that have never been made commercially available over here. But her second North American record, the aforementioned DANZ, is fucking awesome.
Basically, it’s a concept album that riffs on The Wizard Of Oz in a sort of Blade Runner inspired dystopian future. Music by replicants, for replicants. It’s a wild ride, and I can’t recommend it enough. She’s made cool music before DANZ, and she’s made cool music after DANZ, but this stuff is what dreams are made of. So give it a spin and follow the tarnished yellow brick road to a crumbling emerald city drenched in neon and paranoia. It’s some kind of kooky masterpiece.
Keep TRAPPO weird. And yes, Anonymous Meat Sack, that is just a thing we say now.
One might wonder why you left the tail-end of an extended Dune franchise discussion on what is meant to be a podcast focusing on St. Vincent’s “Masseduction”, but one might also wonder if we may hear the rest of this Dune discussion in the future. Also, now I guess I have to look forward to this Willy Wonka movie since the guy who made the delightful Paddington movies is directing. Great.
ReplyDeleteI was really looking forward to the new Dune movie. I even saw it on the big screen because I was ready for some science fiction spectacle. I ended up mostly being bored. It never really connected with me, and I left pretty disappointed. I’m all for a slow burn experience, but this story barely got going, then it was over, and that was it. At least the David Lynch movie was memorable. Fucking bonkers, maybe, but I never forgot it. Why was Patrick Stewart rushing into battle with a gun in one hand and a pug in the other? I don’t know, but I’ll remember that until the day I die.
DeleteThey don’t make mainstream sci-fi like the new Dune anymore. Slow-paced, thoughtful and intelligent epic storytelling just isn’t done by the studios these days. The fact that this movie exists at all is kind of a miracle. And that we’re actually getting part two next year is amazing. A well-crafted and sprawling adaptation of one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written. Finally Dune is being done right. Denis Villeneuve has wanted to make Dune his whole life and that passion is up there on the screen. The David Lynch movie is garish entertainment that I have a lot of nostalgia for, but it’s not Dune. I’ve waited seemingly forever to see Dune taken seriously onscreen, and that time is finally here.
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