Wilco, the alt-country band, have been described as "Dad rock," i.e., the sort of rock that you could (embarrassingly) find that your Dad liked as much as you do. St. Vincent's first album, it must be said, was "Mom rock" - if my mother were to hear it, she would probably ask me where she could buy the CD. "Actor," however, is not "Mom rock." The delightfully deranged moments of "Marry Me" remain, but the straightforward symphonic rock is gone; there's a magnificently skewed beauty to this album, very creative instrumentation, and no immediately obvious singles - it's somewhat difficult, but quite worth the effort.