St. Vincent’s ‘All Born Screaming’ Is a Raw, Self-Made Masterpiece

St. Vincent’s seventh album All Born Screaming is a record about the body and its limits. It is about death, desire, and the stubborn fact of being alive. Annie Clark produced the record herself for the first time, and the result is her most direct and physically immediate work. It is not a comfortable listen. It is a thrilling one.

The album opens with the industrial pulse of “Hell Is Near,” a track that sets the stakes. This is not a record of small gestures. “Reckless” follows with a jagged, tense groove. “Broken Man” is the centerpiece, a snarling, distorted blast of fury that ranks among the best songs Clark has ever written. It is the sound of a person at the end of their rope, and it is magnificent.

From “Flea” to “Violent Times”

“Flea” offers a moment of strange, skittering relief. It is weird, playful, and unsettling. “Big Time Nothing” is a sharp, funky burst of nihilism, all clipped guitar and deadpan delivery. “Violent Times” slows the pulse, a brooding transitional track that moves the record from one peak to the next without breaking its momentum.

“The Power’s Out” is the hinge. A quiet, building ballad, it turns the album’s outward rage inward. It is the most vulnerable Clark has sounded on record, a song about intimacy and failure that does not flinch. The production here is sparse, almost delicate, and it lands harder for the restraint.

“Sweetest Fruit” and the Turn Toward Light

“Sweetest Fruit” is a strange, radiant anomaly. It is the most hopeful song here, a pop-adjacent moment of clarity. “So Many Planets” is a brief, cosmic reset, a sigh before the finale. The title track, “All Born Screaming,” closes the record with controlled chaos. It is a summary of everything that came before: noise, melody, terror, and a strange, defiant joy.

The strength of the whole is that even the transitional moments feel necessary. There is no filler here, only a carefully ordered descent into the heart of the matter.

The Self-Produced Sound

The production is the star. Clark’s self-production gives the record a raw, unpolished edge that her earlier work sometimes smoothed over. The guitars are loud. The drums are physical. The vocals are pushed to their limits. It sounds like a person building a machine in a garage, not a band in a pristine studio. That is a compliment.

This is a record that rewards attention. It is dense, layered, and full of small details that reveal themselves on repeat listens. It is also a record that works as a whole, a complete statement rather than a collection of singles. That is rare in 2024.

All Born Screaming is the sound of an artist at the peak of her powers, unafraid to make a mess. It is the most generous and open statement of her career. It is also her most hopeful record, a strange thing to say about an album this dark. But the hope is there, buried under the noise.

It is a masterpiece.

Key Facts

• Artist: St. Vincent (Annie Clark)
• Title: All Born Screaming
• Release: 2024, self-produced
• Tracks: 10
• Metacritic: 89/100

Track Order

2024 albums · album review · Annie Clark · indie rock · St. Vincent