Earlier this week, St. Vincent teased an album that seems to be called Daddy’s Home. That title has yet to be confirmed, but Annie Clark has discussed the album, including the inspiration behind the (again, currently unconfirmed) album title.
In an interview for the first edition of The New Cue — a new newsletter from former Q Magazine editors Ted Kessler, Chris Catchpole, and Niall Doherty — Clark said, “So the nuts and bolts of it is like, my dad got out of prison in 2019. He’d been in for ten 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.”
She also spoke about the sound of the album, saying it’s “the sound of being down and out Downtown in New York, 1973” and less rigid than Masseduction:
“I would say it’s the sound of being down and out downtown in New York, 1973. Glamour that hasn’t slept for three days. In hindsight, I realized that the 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.
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 to ’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.”
Clark discussed working with Jack Antonoff as well, saying, “I started writing these songs and took a couple to Jack Antonoff. 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 f*cking awesome bass, ripping it. […] 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.”
Check out the full interview here.
