St. Vincent has opened up about her follow-up to 2021’s Daddy’s Home, and it sure sounds interesting. In a new interview with MOJO magazine, the artist born Annie Clark said the album is “darker and harder” than her most recent project and described its sound as “urgent and psychotic.”
Clark self-produced the album and recorded it at her own Compound Fracture studio in LA, New York’s Electric Lady, and Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago. “I needed to go deeper in finding my own sonic vocabulary,” she said about the experience. “I like to think of [the record] as post-plague pop, it’s a lot about heaven and hell — the metaphorical kinds. Which is appropriate, because sitting alone in a studio for that many hours I would say is a version of hell.”
She added that the album is filled with “lots of guitars” alongside ’70s and ’80s analog synths. “It sounds urgent and psychotic, in equal parts the most caustic sound and also, I think, the most sonically blooming,” Clark said. “It’s high stakes and intentional.”
Clark went on to describe it as the “least funny record” of her career. “The last record, I was approaching tough subjects with a lot of biting humor and wit,” she explained. “This record is darker and harder and more close to the bone… There’s nothing cute about it.”
Without going into specific detail about the songs, Clark revealed that contributing artists include Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and John Freese, as well as Cate Le Bon.
Since the release of Daddy’s Home, Clark has been busy covering other artist’s songs during live performances, including Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God),” David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” Portishead’s “Glory Box,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”
Now, it’s time to hear from St. Vincent once again.