POP/ROCK: St. Vincent, "Strange Mercy" (4AD)

Annie Clark, who records under the name St. Vincent, took a giant leap on her second album, the 2009 release "Actor." It tucked double-edged lyrics inside a plush bed of orchestration, and broke up dreamy soundscapes with noisy guitar intrusions. "Strange Mercy" doesn't so much alter that approach as make it even more dramatic. There are even denser arrangements, evoking soundtracks to iconic movies, and even more violent guitar spasms.

Toggling back and forth between harmony and disruption, the songs examine characters as they cope with whatever strange or disappointing twists their lives have taken: the loveless tryst at the heart of "Chloe in the Afternoon," the pliant partner who rebels against her background role in "Cheerleader," the protective mother in the title track.

St. Vincent doesn't betray her characters' anxiety. They're tough to crack, or at least trying to be. Her airy, trilling voice floats above, disembodied from the brutality, as if hardening itself against more heartaches to come. Instead, the turmoil behind the deadpan singing is conveyed through the music. St. Vincent's guitar doesn't always sound like a guitar -- it is distorted, smudged, sometimes altered beyond recognition. It can also be a disruptive force, as in "Northern Lights," lurking in the margins only to pounce in a blur of distortion.

The narrator fights to maintain control but she'll find a way to cope with anything life throws at her. In that way, "Strange Mercy" resonates as a strangely moving album about resilience. It's as messy as life often can be, ugly and beautiful all at once. To survive those contradictions, St. Vincent suggests, you have to embrace them. Or turn them into a song.

  • GREG KOT, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

POP/ROCK: John Doe, "Keeper" (Yep Roc)

Doe's albums are always keepers, but this one is especially worthy as Doe shakes off some of the dourness that plagues him. He rushes out with a rumble-and-roll opener, "Don't Forget How Much I Love You," that satisfies with viral endearment. Yet the founder of the L.A. punk pioneers X hasn't gone cushy; he's just shading a little more brightness into his rocking Americana/folk/country blues, a little more sweet for the bittersweet.

The pacing of "Keeper" feels organic as he finds a place for the soft ditty "Sweetheart," the rollicking "Jump Into My Arms" and the low-slung, sauntering "Moonbeam."

Doe still has his punk swagger -- "Never Enough" is a ferocious, visceral attack on materialism, and the foreboding "Handsome Devil" gets his hackles up when a "friend of a friend" moves in on his turf. Plus, his tenderness is measured so as to avoid corniness. Doe closes with uncanny perspective. On "Cottage in the 'Dale," he reflects on settling down to a simpler life and wryly relishes "Senior Sunday at the honky-tonk." Then on "Painting the Town Blue," Doe playfully embraces his inner contrarian. Even younger generations can appreciate that.

  • CHUCK CAMPBELL, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE