Just off the release of her fifth full-length album, the harrowing pop triumph, Masseduction, St. Vincent slowed things down a bit for Jools Holland by performing a cover of a country classic. As a Texan herself who grew up primarily in Dallas, Annie Clark is more than familiar with artists like Patsy Cline and George Strait, who she says her family listened to often when she was a kid.
Jools isn’t the first to point out how disparate these sounds are from Clark’s own work, and while she agrees, at his request she also goes on to pull off one of the most flawless covers of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” in the history of pop, with Jools himself accompanying her on the piano. The cover, which Clark delivers while in a full-body leopard print catsuit, is another testament to Clark’s versatility, as Masseduction marks such a departure from her 2014 psych-rock self-titled.
As part of our weekly recommended albums, St. Vincent’s latest is a step forward for the artist in more ways than one. She enlisted a new collaborator, Jack Antonoff, to help build out a more polished, personal sound, and got much more intimate and direct with her songwriting than she has in the past. The resulting, gorgeous tracks like “Los Ageless” and “New York” are some of the best of the year.
In the meantime, her cover of “Crazy” ranks up there as well. Watch it over at Consequence Of Sound.
