For fans of: Seventies Avant-Pop

What they're saying: A rave review from Thom Jurek at Allmusic.com nicely places the record’s diverse set of influences: “The Perfect Release stitches together the lounge jazz of Lower Manhattan, the Brazilian pop of Tom Jobim, Nara Leao, and Caetano Veloso, the slippery funk of War, and the shifty rock skullduggery of Joni Mitchell's LA studio period.” And from the fascinating artist herself in a lengthy piece at The Quietus:

“The Perfect Release was made back in 1979 but it’s the artist’s job to see into the future. I don’t know where it comes from. You have these perceptions about things and you feel them very strongly. The ideas that you think about in your unconscious emerge into your consciousness but when you are in the creative process, there’s a very fine line between the two. You have to have a certain amount of consciousness to be able to manifest things, but it’s the unconscious which is liberated.”

What we say: A great reissue of Annette Peacock’s unique Jazz/Funk/Spoken-Word album. Way ahead of its time, The Perfect Release was originally released in 1979 to little commercial success. An obscure precursor to today’s art-house indie and pop, St Vincent eat your heart out.