The title of St Vincent's new album, Daddy's Home, together with its sultry booklet cover may spin a few mixed messages, but William Dart looks at what American singer Annie Clark has really got on her mind.
St. Vincent at the Winter NAMM Show 2017 Photo: Justin Higuchi 2017 CC2.0
William begins his programme with a quick tour through some St Vincent's earlier albums including her colloboration with David Byrne, Love This Giant.
She sets the new songs of Daddy's Home in both time and location — New York, 1971-76. Post flower power, pre gay disco and, pre punk.
She's warned us that she’s playing around with the masculine and feminine, writing about flawed people, doing their best to get by and sometimes fumbling.
St Vincent, Daddy's Home, cover image Photo: Loma Vista Records
The title song - despite the nudging suggested by the CD cover image - is about her relationship to her own father, who found himself in prison for nine years: a white-collar criminal, convicted of defrauding 43 odd million from the unsuspecting.
There's also a fleeting reference to her mother in domestic mode in the first of the three short 'Humming' Interludes.
But for all of the family revelations, maybe the whole point of this excursion is, in essence, a musical one. In one interview, Clark laughed at herself as being a bit of a musical nerd, obsessed with the niceties of key shifts, cadences and the like.
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Section 28 (Guaranteed Nightlite)' (DeLaughter) – The Polyphonic Spree
The Fragile Army
(TVT)
'Landmines' (Clark) – St Vincent
Marry Me
(Beggars Banquet)
'The Party' (Clark) – St Vincent
Actor
(4AD)
'Lazarus' (Byrne, Clark) – St Vincent & David Byrne
Love this Giant
(4AD)
'Savior' (Clark) – St Vincent
Masseduction
(Loma Vista)
'Pay Your Way In Pain' (Clark, Antonoff) – St Vincent
Daddy’s Home
(Loma Vista)
'Daddy's Home' (Clark, Antonoff) – St Vincent
Daddy’s Home
(Loma Vista)
'Humming (Interlude 1)' (Clark) – St Vincent
Daddy’s Home
(Loma Vista)
'My Baby Wants A Baby' (Clark, Palmer) – St Vincent
Daddy’s Home
(Loma Vista)
'The Melting Of The Sun' (Clark) – St Vincent
Daddy’s Home
(Loma Vista)
