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Dec 31, 2019 Web Exclusive By Christopher Thiessen

St. Vincent’s Annie Clark has been riding the MASSEDUCTION wave nonstop since its initial 2017 release. Last year, she released the barebones MassEducation which returns the songs to a raw piano and vocal delivery, stripped of the maximalist electronica and highlighting Clark’s thoughtful songwriting. Now with the help of curator Nina Kraviz comes MASSEDUCTION Rewired, a collection of remixes which hopes to, again, recontextualize the music of St. Vincent through myriad electronic genres.

At nearly two hours long, the album is hard to get through in one sitting and is best treated as a pick-and-choose collection. Batu’s dancy remix of “Hang On Me” highlights what the album does best by transforming Clark’s lyricism into emotion. The producer layers cold, crystalline synthesizers over thumping bass synths as Clark’s voice tries to break out with a quiet plea, “We’re not meant for this world.”

Kraviz herself reimagines album highlight “New York” on three new mixes, most notably the “Vocal Mix.” Here, Kraviz accentuates the loneliness Clark conveys after the loss of her hero-friend with swelling, spectral vocals. New York to Clark and Kraviz isn’t a bustling metropolis, but a ghost town devoid of friendship.

Though the album’s tracklist is bloated at 22 songs, the final three are worth the journey. Chicago footwork producer Jlin and British dubstep producer Mala each offer rich remixes of “Smoking Section”; the former employs chipmunked vocals and crisp, scratchy percussion while the latter overloads speakers with throbbing bass and foreboding piano lines to convey the song’s depressive apathy. Finally, Dutch producer Steffi’s take on the anthemic “Fast Slow Disco” is somehow more grandiose than the original featuring huge drum rolls, funky guitars, and of course, an infectious beat.

MASSEDUCTION isn’t a record that needed rewiring. It was near-perfect from the start. But if all this record does is give us another opportunity to dance to some of St. Vincent’s best work, it’s done its job. (www.ilovestvincent.com)

Author rating: 6/10