{"id":5,"date":"2014-12-29T16:22:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T16:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/?p=5"},"modified":"2014-12-31T18:01:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T18:01:57","slug":"st-vincent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/st-vincent\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Vincent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a track from <em>St. Vincent<\/em> by St. Vincent:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TAdARF4rGcQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/02\/17\/274773638\/first-listen-st-vincent-st-vincent\" target=\"_blank\">From NPR Music by Katie Presley:<\/a><br \/>The word &#8220;eccentric&#8221; pops up often in descriptions of Annie Clark and the music she performs as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15159199\/st-vincent\">St. Vincent<\/a>. It&#8217;s a word attached to trailblazers of many kinds. Often though not always, there&#8217;s a degree of respect wrapped up in the idea of eccentricity \u2014 and intrigue, certainly \u2014 but there&#8217;s also a gentle admonishment, a &#8220;we both know you&#8217;re breaking the rules&#8221; eyebrow-raising inherent in that descriptor. A more apt word for St. Vincent, written into every inch of her self-titled fourth album, is fearless.<\/p>\n<p>Clark credits <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15320822\/david-byrne\">David Byrne<\/a>, her collaborator on 2012&#8217;s <em>Love This Giant<\/em>, with teaching her fearlessness. While it&#8217;s true that she started work on this record <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/allsongs\/2014\/01\/08\/249345302\/ambien-dreams-and-naked-desert-walks-st-vincent-on-her-new-album\">36 hours<\/a> after returning home from a tour with Byrne, and while that project (particularly its irrepressible horn section) is writ large upon this one, Clark doesn&#8217;t give herself enough credit. She&#8217;s been making unapologetically individual music since her 2007 debut <em>Marry Me<\/em>, and she continues to rewrite the boundaries of contemporary indie rock with each of her projects. That, too, is where eccentricity as a concept fails to capture Clark&#8217;s quiddity. It&#8217;s not strangeness that dominates her music, but a sense of exploration, experimentation and artistic discovery, executed with impeccable production instincts. Every defiant growl, jaded vocal fry and distorted guitar lick on <em>St. Vincent<\/em> flirts with the avant garde, yet uses an accessible, if inventive, musical vocabulary to do so.<\/p>\n<p>For female performers, the tactic of toeing the unnerving\/alluring line has political weight behind it, and Clark doesn&#8217;t lack predecessors. Immediately and most persistently audible on this album is a nod to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15182176\/tori-amos\">Tori Amos<\/a>, who&#8217;s also made a career of crafting sexy, startling, vital music via unimpeachable technique and a deceptively sweet voice. (Amos, even more than Clark, has been labeled &#8220;eccentric&#8221; throughout her career.) &#8220;Digital Witness&#8221; sounds like a polished, millennial-savvy counterpart to Amos&#8217; <em>From the Choirgirl Hotel<\/em>, and Clark&#8217;s quicksilver vocal transformation from smooth, vulnerable coo to deconstructed, visceral snarl in &#8220;Huey Newton&#8221; has both an ancestor and a colleague in Amos&#8217; entire discography. It&#8217;s impressive company for both artists to keep.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eccentric&#8221; falls short as a descriptor for St. Vincent&#8217;s music, but it may be a necessary fumble; art this big isn&#8217;t doing its job if everybody warms to it. One listener&#8217;s eyebrow-raising rule-breaker is another&#8217;s genius. Annie Clark, more than many, is both.<br \/>\nThe word &#8220;eccentric&#8221; pops up often in descriptions of Annie Clark and the music she performs as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15159199\/st-vincent\">St. Vincent<\/a>. It&#8217;s a word attached to trailblazers of many kinds. Often though not always, there&#8217;s a degree of respect wrapped up in the idea of eccentricity \u2014 and intrigue, certainly \u2014 but there&#8217;s also a gentle admonishment, a &#8220;we both know you&#8217;re breaking the rules&#8221; eyebrow-raising inherent in that descriptor. A more apt word for St. Vincent, written into every inch of her self-titled fourth album, is fearless.<\/p>\n<p>Clark credits <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15320822\/david-byrne\">David Byrne<\/a>, her collaborator on 2012&#8217;s <em>Love This Giant<\/em>, with teaching her fearlessness. While it&#8217;s true that she started work on this record <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/allsongs\/2014\/01\/08\/249345302\/ambien-dreams-and-naked-desert-walks-st-vincent-on-her-new-album\">36 hours<\/a> after returning home from a tour with Byrne, and while that project (particularly its irrepressible horn section) is writ large upon this one, Clark doesn&#8217;t give herself enough credit. She&#8217;s been making unapologetically individual music since her 2007 debut <em>Marry Me<\/em>, and she continues to rewrite the boundaries of contemporary indie rock with each of her projects. That, too, is where eccentricity as a concept fails to capture Clark&#8217;s quiddity. It&#8217;s not strangeness that dominates her music, but a sense of exploration, experimentation and artistic discovery, executed with impeccable production instincts. Every defiant growl, jaded vocal fry and distorted guitar lick on <em>St. Vincent<\/em> flirts with the avant garde, yet uses an accessible, if inventive, musical vocabulary to do so.<\/p>\n<p>For female performers, the tactic of toeing the unnerving\/alluring line has political weight behind it, and Clark doesn&#8217;t lack predecessors. Immediately and most persistently audible on this album is a nod to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/15182176\/tori-amos\">Tori Amos<\/a>, who&#8217;s also made a career of crafting sexy, startling, vital music via unimpeachable technique and a deceptively sweet voice. (Amos, even more than Clark, has been labeled &#8220;eccentric&#8221; throughout her career.) &#8220;Digital Witness&#8221; sounds like a polished, millennial-savvy counterpart to Amos&#8217; <em>From the Choirgirl Hotel<\/em>, and Clark&#8217;s quicksilver vocal transformation from smooth, vulnerable coo to deconstructed, visceral snarl in &#8220;Huey Newton&#8221; has both an ancestor and a colleague in Amos&#8217; entire discography. It&#8217;s impressive company for both artists to keep.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eccentric&#8221; falls short as a descriptor for St. Vincent&#8217;s music, but it may be a necessary fumble; art this big isn&#8217;t doing its job if everybody warms to it. One listener&#8217;s eyebrow-raising rule-breaker is another&#8217;s genius. Annie Clark, more than many, is both.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http:\/\/www.npr.org\/.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&amp;utmdt=First+Listen%3A+St.+Vincent%2C+%27St.+Vincent%27&amp;utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxODQzOTgwMDEyMTcyNjI4MTAxYWQyMw004)\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a track from St. Vincent by St. Vincent: From&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","byline-st-vincent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/kxt2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}