If it's hard to consider St. Vincent's Strange Mercy a misstep—its ideas are too strong, its resolve too robust—it's still easy enough to hear it as a failure to build on the foundations laid down on the first two records by the woman known to the taxman as Annie Clark. Maybe a little bit too [...]

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. Hal Ashby: Interviews, edited by Nick Dawson.
Hal Ashby was one of those legendary, long-haired, aviator-sunglassed, '70s-ish directors (see: Harold and Maude, Shampoo, Being There) who did drugs and wore flared pants and generally represented the "golden age of American cinema," though most of [...]

To judge by their tightly wound, country-tinged pop songs, Olivia Mancini and the Mates aren't shorting their craft. But even the most polished band needs its R&R, and this local act—featuring two former members of Washington Social Club—loves to curl up with a good book. That's the impression, at least, left by "Graphology," a rollicking gem [...]