Like
most St. Vincent songs, listening to new track Surgeon
is a little like being introduced to a gorgeous sociopath. Her voice
is charming and disarming, but the words she speaks nonetheless keep
one on one’s guard. Take first line: I
spent the summer on my back.
That’s a thing to start a conversation with! It could of course
mean several things: Ms. Clark spent three months in an operating
theatre or feels like she did (the song is called Surgeon
after all), or perhaps spent the June to August period being fucked.
But in fact it isn’t clear. She never elucidates. So one has to
question: what sort of person introduces themselves like this? How
traumatised (or flirtatious) must she be to tell people this? The
temptation might be to back off at the earliest chance, except that St. Vincent has such a siren-like voice. Surgeon
proceeds like this throughout, using Ms. Clarke’s voice as the
carrot, and the insights and emotional tone of her language as the
stick. In consequence, like her previous albums, one comes away from
the encounter charmed but shaken, not sure that one has learnt
anything about this woman, but unable to forget her.
