Music Pick: St. Vincent

ACL Live at The Moody Theater

February 22 & 23, 8 P.M.

Annie Clark, known onstage as St. Vincent, isn’t a rule breaker in the traditional sense. And she’d be the first to appreciate the irony of that statement. Her anarchic brand of creativity doesn’t have her actively looking for rules to break or boundaries to push. Instead, it is simply assertive of the fact that the laws, traditions, and schools of thought in the world of art and expression have no mandate unless we allow them to.

This attitude is at the center of what are now, with the release of “Masseduction,” five wildly colorful records, featuring dazzling musical arrangements and some truly quirky and innovative guitar playing that confounds purists on the internet. On “Masseduction,” Clark and her music take on a persona she’s described as “sexy, but very arch, and very, very absurd too.” Her guitar licks lie just below the surface of synth-y orchestrations, waiting for a chance to come out bearing fangs and rattling tails. It’s lots of show and a little madness, not without a sense of real vulnerability.

Clark’s individualism shines more than ever on this new album and tour; she’s performing personal art-rock pieces while wielding a guitar that she designed from the ground up. And while in the past she was backed by a band, she spends most of her time these days playing a one-woman show, where she exhibits a latex wardrobe and Martian musicianship. St. Vincent will be playing two nights at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on February 22 and 23. Expect her to take it by storm.