St. Vincent

Why she’s sexy: St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark looks like a waif, sings like a siren and wields her tongue like a Ginsu knife.

What she’s all about: Clark has played with Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree, but her own sweetly lilting confections come with sharp edges. She’s like a Disney film in a porn theater, cutting her lulling delicacy and sonorous voice with sputtering electronics, thunderous guitar distortion and subversive lyrics. Her latest release, Actor, takes her dazzling combination of musical grace and unsettling emotions even further. Within the luxurious orchestral drift of “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood,” Clark sends postmortem messages to her next of kin, and “Strangers” features her hypnotic choral incantation — Paint the black hole blacker — over tinkling keyboards and angelic strings. With intricate, unpredictable arrangements and a challenging tone, Clark strikes a bold, arresting profile.