St. Vincent arrives at her sixth studio album, ‘Daddy’s Home’, clad in a fur coat, striking and sublime amid a sepia ‘70s haze. Immersed in the thriving atmosphere of a New York bar, lost in the lull of velvet vocals, she seeks clarity from the familiar clink of champagne glasses. Remove this aesthetic mask, though, and this is a record as straight talking as its title suggests.
Reverberating with personal details following the quasi-character work of ‘St. Vincent’ and ‘Masseduction’, here we glance the human side of the woman behind the alter-ego. As she chimes on the title track, a skronky Hammond funk piece delivered through a typically wonky lens: “Yeah, you did some time. Well, I did some time too.”
Here we see Annie Clark still bruised from the reality of seeing her father incarcerated, and as the light at the end of that tunnel has drawn ever nearer it’s clear that the title ‘Daddy’s Home’ holds meaning in more than one respect.
Expressing a torrent of emotion the only way she knows how, St. Vincent pours out a decade of anguish and fires potshots at doubters and the tabloids.
This cathartic release has buried itself in her songwriting—see the lyrics to the gossamer ballad Live in the Dream: “There's a lot of people here who wanna do you harm.”
The heavy ‘70s sentiment is not just by chance, either. As ‘Daddy’s Home’ plays out, it becomes clear that this album is steeped in influences from Clark’s father, and the songs they adored together. In particular, it’s an ode to a stash of vinyl records that the pair cherished on its way to becoming music that St. Vincent has sought inspiration from throughout her career.
Ensuring her own signature is stamped on the release, Clark pairs these influences with off-kilter staging and her renowned sharp wit, which seems to filter down from her smirk on the album cover. On ‘Daddy’s Home’, St. Vincent has taken the reins of her own emotional journey, but she also revels in the album’s tongue-in-cheek flair and playfulness. Giving us just a peek into her vulnerability, she abruptly turns on her heels to strut away.
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