My first experience of St Vincent (alias of ex Polyphonic Spree member and Sufjan Stevens cohort Annie Clark) came early last year when I caught her supporting The National at the Irish Club in Birmingham. It was a striking performance which managed to combine the brittle acoustic anti-folk of her former play-mates with the sonic experimentalism of latter period Bjork. The subsequent album 'Marry Me' (which I brought from the Annie herself after the show) was equally as enchanting as so when this latest single landed on my doorstep I must say that my hopes were unnaturally high.

"Actor Out Of Work" caught me off guard a little at first. Sonically it's all over the place but the steady melody and predictably intelligent lyrics hold it together. It's the most immediate thing I've heard from St Vincent and yet also one of the strangest. On one hand it has the propulsive rhythm and clear, melodic vocals that would ear-mark it as a strong first single but the songs lack of a tangible chorus and unconventional instrumentation surely make it anything but? The songs bizarre duality is perfectly summed up in it's most memorable line "i think I love you, I think I'm mad". Forgetting it's single status for a while it is a great track, very brief but just as satisfying, it will no doubt sound great in the context of her upcoming album (which going by the review elsewhere on altsounds I'll be checking out asap) but as a stand-alone song it's just too slight to really set the juices flowing.

B-Side 'Bicycle' is more akin to the sparse, electronic work of Annie's debut album. It has that albums same twisted, beatific charm and works as a perfect foil to 'Actor's' confident bombast. In fact were I forced to choose I'd say I actually prefer bicycle, however we're looking at singles here and navel gazing introspection does not a chart topper make.

In conclusion 'Actor Out Of Work' is a great track, it's juts not a great single. It does whet the appetite for it's upcoming semi-namesake album however, and for that reason alone it deserves faint praise.