Time for the second half of that tie...
How can anybody have you?
How can anybody have you and lose you?
How can anybody have you and lose you
And not lose their minds, too?
WHAT. A. CHORUS.
(TIE) 5. SIaynt Vincent - Los Wigless
My favourite artwork in the entire rate tbh, apt huh?
Average: 9.1
High: 11 x 3 (
@Trouble in Paradise @Stradiwhovius @me)
10 x 31 (
@mokitsu @Alouder98 @dylanaber @happiestgirl @enjoy @JapaneseJesus @bleedingheart80 @LE0Night @Petty Mayonnaise @GimmeWork @Bangers&Bops @Joe. @Jwentz @sfmartin @ufint @Kuhleezi @ohnostalgia @Jonathan27 @gagapourgaga @Aester @Lila @Remorque @digitalkaiser @soratami @NecessaryVoodoo @Cassava @Oleander @kalonite @Remyky22 @Heaven on Earth @A&E)
Low: 5 x 1 (
@EuWHOREria)
My score: 11
10 voters in: 3
20 voters in: 5
30 voters in: 6
40 voters in: 6
50 voters in: 6
60 voters in: 6
Whew! And just like that, we lose two albums within the space of two days! As gutted as I am that this didn't end up making the top 3, this high-key sIayed, huh? Maintaining a 9+ average throughout the voting period and never falling below #6, WHEN will your fave? WHEN will
your 11? I had no doubt in my mind that this would be the last Annie cut standing, I never expected it to win, so it making the top 5, and having New York in the top 10 beside it, was a massive bonus for me as a host stanning Masseduction.
Los Ageless, the fifth track on St. Vincent’s MASSEDUCTION, was released on September 6th along with the full announcement of the album...just as I was starting to get HELLA frustrated with the pacing of the album rollout...let's revisit:
This is exactly what I wanted from her. I'm crying.
Ok great, I'm happy for all her success and ventures (get money and all that), but can she hurry up now?
Like, good for her for getting all these endorsements and films and stuff, but can she get money AFTER we get the album??
I love you Annie but she can FUCK OFF with a 2 month gap between the song and the video and still no concrete album release information.
DDD shut me up a bit, Annie.
Where do I even begin with this? Annie is a
true artist, she doesn't just give us bops, but she gives us
continuity. Masseduction is equally cohesive as
Melodrama (although perhaps more so, since Green Light's production feels a bit jarring at points within the context of the album but we will get to THAT later on...). As you may well have guessed, the title is a play on 'Los Angeles'...and references the lyrics of 'New York'...and even shares a melody with parts of 'Sugerboy'. Yes WE stan a concept. In many ways, 'Los Ageless' could be considered the anti-thesis to 'New York'. Aside from the East Coast/West Coast polarity, the shorter, sweeter, subtlety of New York is completely juxtaposed by the wilder, more drawn-out, explosivity of Los Ageless'.
As much as I adore Supercut, I Know A Place and Perfect Places, to me, this has the biggest chorus in the rate. It's just...huge, grand and straight-up face-melting when listened to with good headphones/speakers. And just when I thought Annie had truly given the gays everything they wanted, she only came through with TWO equally immaculate versions. On one hand, you have the
opus that is the album version, complete with a Broadway-worthy drawma-packed outro similar to 'Pills', on the other, you have the video/single version, which was trimmed down, turned up and given a double
fucking chorus. Because no wig clue is strong enough.
I would THINK that the lyrics and theme of this track are pretty obvious, and yet an interviewer still asked her to spell out the wordplay in the title, to which her response was pretty much ‘watch the damn video’ ddd:
‘It’s a reference to the Hollywood obsession with staying young. This is especially evident in the music video, which features a great deal of plastic surgery imagery.’
She also discussed the influence of Annie's aunt and uncle on the song, the latter looking like the perfect combination of Annie and David Byrne from the Love This Giant artwork dfgbrfdvbgf (I'm a terrible person):
Your uncle and aunt, Tuck and Patti Andress—also known as the long-running jazz duo Tuck & Patti—play on a few songs on the record, including this one. You’ve spoken about how much they inspired you early on in your life, but this is the first time they’ve contributed to one of your records. Why is that?
I didn’t think I was worthy of having them before. They taught me how to work and about trying to achieve excellence and transcendence through music. I was born with a whip [mimes whipping herself over the shoulder], but they handed me a bigger one. They taught me the value of the phrase, “That wasn’t good enough.” This was the first time that the heart of it all was worthy enough to include them. They’re virtuosic to the nth degree, but I wanted to hear Tuck play with distortion, and I wanted to hear Patti just wail in some dirty, dirge-y fashion, and I got them to do those things. We had the best time. It was a little family reunion.
Sweet, huh? Even sweeter, none of the haters bothered to leave commentary for this, almost as if they knew that their opinions weren't wanted<33
Fantasy (8) gives me Yoda teas with his commentary:
The chorus is very strong in this one.
Ever the toughest of critics, even
Michael17 (8.5) had to admit that this is
'A-grade pop. I feel like a little soul is missing in most of the song (until the badass breakdown). Top-notch lyrics. The “sacred cow” line is one of the best vocal moments on the album. The outro is way too quiet, though.' OF COURSE you found a fault, listen to the single version and shut up.
Story time! Courtesy of
AshleyKerwin (9.5):
Once, I had an interview about an hour away and on my way back, I got lost. I tried taking a shortcut but my GPS just put me back through local roads but through an even longer route. I tried rerouting and pulled into the parking lot of a weird private school and I heard Los Ageless on the radio. It took me about 90 minutes after that to go home still but at least the song was a nice memory. I didn't get the job.
Joe.’s commentary is...odd considering he gave it a 10 but work: I
perhaps don't love this album as much as most of the rest of you, but this song is undeniable.
GimmeWork (10) should've indeed given this her 11 but I'll deal:
This was also a contender for my 11. What a clever, catchy, flawless song!?!!
Soratami (10): '
Yas queen, we are not worthy.' We SO aren’t...
Jwentz (10):
'When will your fave write a chorus this good?' NEVER, that’s when.
Even
Sprockrooster (10) was gooped and gagged at Annie’s talent:
Somehow very captivating from start to finish.
Cassava (10): '
This caught me terribly off guard because the title seemed so *cheesy* and then I felt a sudden jerk and had no hair.' Los Wigless indeed.
Ufint (10) serves some 'I stanned from the beginning' teas:
St. Vincent has come such a long way since I first started listening to her some seven years ago. She hits every beat and the chorus is the best on the album hands down.
This might be the longest song on the album, but the recently converted
bleedingheart80 (10) wanted MORE, dammit!
What a song. Those guitars are giving me life and I kinda wish the song was longer.
Mokitsu (10) and I disagree regarding most of Masseducation, but we both stan this and that’s all that matter:
’By far my favorite song in this record. It's fun, aggressive, and smart.’ I see no lies, only tea.
Sfmartin (10) calls it
'an absolute triumph, a definite contender for my 11. It flows and progresses beautifully and then explodes. It creates such a captivating sonic experience with the images created by the lyrics.'
Kalonite (10) I wish I had an answer to your request...but alas:
'I love this so much and can somebody please tell me what the chorus reminds me of cause it's killing me. That moment when her voice breaks in the bridge is magic. Then a spoken word outro? Yes.' Can anyone help a sister out??
Rather than deceitfully iconic,
enjoy (10) calls it
‘honestly iconic and one of the best single packages ever. That video clip is also very American Life which is another record i adore. And holy shit at Annie belting and going for it at the third verse.’
Kuhleezi (10):
'We like to rave on and on about how a song "makes more sense in the context of the album", and let me tell you, most of the times I feel that's at least 70% unadulterated bollocks. But, in this case the sequencing actually manages to drastically change the whole vibe of this song: while it bopped hard as a single, coming after the manic Sugarboy on the album makes it almost feel slowish, which actually helps put the song into another completely different perspective. Whew she really did that didn't she.' Indeed, she done did the damn thing.
Bangers&Bops (10) once again gives me the theatricality that I love:
With the oozing, heartbreak-soaked “Los Ageless,” Clark gifts us possibly one of the best lines on the album: “How can anybody have you and lose you / and not lose their mind, too?”. "Los Ageless" addresses the same themes of heartbreak and loneliness that New York does but with a smoldering new edge. It's funny, too, with Clark turning the entertainment industry mecca that is Los Angeles into the mystical "Los Ageless" -- a place where "the lost sages hang out by the bar" and "burn the pages of unwritten memoirs."
Our first 11-giver,
Stradiwhovius, gives us a helping of the finest oolong his student budget can afford:
This is the chorus of the year for a start. It succeeds where a lot of these "ugh Hollywood so fake" songs fail by always relating it back to the personal journey and the two weave into a brilliant, angry tantrum of relatable disillusion.
My second 11 twin Trouble in Paradise stans his little heart away and I’m right there with him:
The combination of that riff and the chorus make this song unstoppable to me. St Vincent captures what I love about pop music: this intense ability to capture such a deep feeling and experience in such a seemingly simple way. “How can anybody have you and lose you and not lose their mind too?” speaks so perfectly to what loss can mean.
