When a star is born, it expands in size because individual hydrogen atoms can’t help but fall to the center of the star’s cloud with increasing speed and energy. This rapid increase in energy makes the star grow brighter and brighter over time. Annie Clark, better known to her fans as St. Vincent, is a star forever expanding, musically and lyrically, into a bright white brilliance that is damn impossible to ignore.
I challenge anyone who hears “Birth in Reverse” to avoid being sucked in to the center of the ordered chaos she creates. It will catch you from the beginning with classic St. Vincent guitar distortion and a jarring lyric about the mundane — “Oh what an ordinary day / Take out the garbage, masturbate”. From there, the song refuses to let go, but there’s no other cloud of edgy vocal particles, punchy percussive dust, and dizzying guitar hook heat that you will want to be a part of for all 3 minutes and 15 seconds of its crackling electric glory.