After beefing up her credentials through time on the road with The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, two acts whose expansive arrangements she doubtlessly studied, Annie Clark went solo as St. Vincent in 2007, releasing Marry Me, a chilly album coated with layers of baroque pop, classical flourishes and mannered quirk. Clark's 2009 follow-up, Actor, was even more striking, resurrecting the frilly woodwinds and whimsical sounds of old Disney records, but using them in the service of a cycle of songs nearly as bleak as Lou Reed's Berlin. She dials back some of those flourishes on her latest (and arguably her best) album, Strange Mercy, the darkest, most bluntly rocking record she's ever made.
St. Vincent w/ Wildbirds & Peacedrums
Tonight @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.