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http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/byrne-st-vincent-pochette-1346872010.jpg Love This Giant

David Byrne and St. Vincent

Love This Giant

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5 3 0
September 11, 2012

A May-December one-off by David Byrne and Annie "St. Vincent" Clark, this LP is like a special-mention science-fair project: two brainy kids speaking in tongues that are fascinating even when they're hard to follow. Working with a brass band and tandem guitars, the duo trade vocals, delivering hiccuping phoneme and wry kickers over shifty programmed beats. Yet for all the convention-dodging, the most satisfying bits – Byrne's show-tune-y "I Am an Ape" and Clark's New York City mash-note ballad, "Optimist" – are the most straightforward. Go figure.

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