Tuesday Tune Two-Fer: Once Upon a Black Rainbow

St Vincent’s music doesn’t always hit with me, but when it does, it hits hard. Actor is one of my top 10 favorite albums, even though I don’t particularly like half of the tracks on it. A huge part of that comes from Annie Clark treating it like a concept album, a bunch of songs loosely related around the idea of a fairy tale gone wrong. It’s more explicit on some tracks than others, but there’s a consistent theme of darkness roiling beneath the peaceful, idyllic surface. And more interesting to me, as suggested by the title, repeated themes of deception, repression, and keeping up appearances. But I think what made it hit so hard with me was Clark’s looking to fairy tale music as inspiration. In interviews, she called out the swirling music of Sleeping Beauty in particular. The most recognizable is probably “Once Upon a Dream”. Listening to that music again now, for the first time in forever, gives me a greater appreciation for how much is going on in Actor and in Sleeping Beauty.…