Throughout the 2010s, the album has become somewhat amorphous. Today’s artists are more prone to releasing multiple versions of their records, and many of the old rules about the format have gone out of the window.
Experimental singer-songwriter St Vincent seems cognisant of this trend with the revival of her 2017 album Masseduction, in remixed form. Not only has she handed the curatorial duties over to Russian producer Nina Kraviz in order to create a totally reimagined version of the album, but it’s also being released in multiple formats, with varying tracklists: there’s the vinyl album, the digital album, and three EPs, all of which contain different combinations of the otherworldly, gloomy remixes.
It’s a fragmented release that views St Vincent’s original material through many different emotional and musical lenses: Chicago footwork producer Jlin turns the bleakly self-destructive energy of Smoking Section into a frenetic bass ballet, while south London legend Mala makes the same track into a dubby dancefloor wobbler. Kraviz’s own eerie, vocal-centric take on the record’s lead single New York treads closest to the original song’s mood, with its sensual loneliness. But the record’s highlight is Hyperdub producer Laurel Halo’s unadulterated synth jam, as she stretches Young Lover – a pulsating rock song about loving an addict – into six engulfing, starry minutes. Passing St Vincent’s songs through the hands of such a diverse cast of producers makes for a disjointed listening experience and broken narrative; but along the way, there are moments of raw, magnetic beauty.
