St. Vincent describes upcoming album as "the sound of being down and out Downtown in New York, 1973"

Last week street posters appeared to reveal that St. Vincent's follow up to 2017's MASSEDUCTION is called Daddy's Home, and is due to arrive in May.

In December last year, St. Vincent also confirmed that her new album was "locked and loaded". She added that her sixth album is "a tectonic shift" in relation to her previous material, and said, "I felt I had gone as far as I could possibly go with angularity. I was interested in going back to the music I've listened to more than any other - Stevie Wonder records from the early '70s, Sly and the Family Stone. I studied at the feet of those masters."

Last Friday (26 February) St. Vincent, real name Annie Clark, discussed her forthcoming album in the first edition of weekly newsletter The New Cue. Clark described the album as "the sound of being down and out Downtown in New York, 1973. Glamour that hasn’t slept for three days."

When asked what headspace she was in when approaching the new album, Clark replied, "In hindsight, I realised that the [last album, 2017’s] Masseduction and tour was so incredibly strict, whether it was the outfits I was wearing that literally constricted me, to the show being tight and the music being angular and rigid. When I wrapped that, I was like ‘oh, I just want things that are fluid and wiggly and I want this music to look like a Cassavetes film’. I wanted it to be warm tones and not really distorted, to tell these stories of flawed people being flawed and doing the best they can. Which is kind of what my life is."

Clark also discussed the music she was listening to when writing the album. Clark responded, "I went back to these records that I probably listened to more in my life than at any other time, music made in New York from 1971-76, typically post-flower child, kick the hippie idealism out of it, America’s in a recession but pre-disco, the sort of gritty, raw, wiggly nihilistic part of that. It's not a glamorous time, there's a lot of dirt under the fingernails. It was really about feel and vibe but with song and stories."

St. Vincent also confirmed that she worked on the album with Jack Antonoff, "I started writing these songs and took a couple to [producer] Jack Antonoff. I was in Electric Lady Studios in New York and wanted to do this sleazy, grimy record and Jack was fully on board. He whipped out some great Wurlitzer playing, super funky, then he’d get on the drums and do totally the right vibe. And then he was playing this fucking awesome bass, ripping it." Later she continued, "It was cool to get to see Jack bust out these chops. And same here, I actually have some deep understanding of harmony that I keep to myself most of the time but here I bust it out."

After skipping over revealing the album title, Clark discussed what inspired the album, "So the nuts and bolts of it is like, my dad got out of prison in 2019. He'd been in for 10 years. My first song for it was a story about when I used to go visit him and I would sign crumpled-up Target receipts somebody had left in the visitation room. And, of course, it's incredibly sad, but it’s also incredibly absurd so the whole family has found a way to laugh about it. So that was the impetus, I guess."