St. Vincent's new Daddy's Home is another strong outing from an artist who continues to expand her musical vision. Watching and listening to her progressive career path from Marry Me in 2007 to today has been a fascinating and rewarding experience.
Pay Your Way In Pain opens the record on a strong note with distorted pop that recalls 2017's Masseduction as much as anything on this record. Down And Out Downtown features great guitar, vocals, and background vocals and has a big, dramatic sound that is found on much of the album.The funky, sparse title track features Thomas Bartlett's Wurlitzer piano to fine effect. A Lennon-like dream state surrounds the airy vocals and hot guitar of Live In The Dream. The Melting Of The Sun and The Laughing Man are slower mid-tempo pieces that continue the well-crafted song and lyric writing evident everywhere.
The twisted rock of Down, with fine synths and St. Vincent's signature hot guitar lets you know not to mess with this woman. More great guitar, as well as mellotron, and Greg Leisz's pedal steel guitar embellish Somebody Like Me. My Baby Wants A Baby is a great lyric with more fine background vocals, and ...At The Holiday Party is a great melody and lyric that also features the horns of Evan Smith and Michael Leonhard. The record ends on the sweet romantic note of Candy Darling.
St. Vincent/Annie Clark shows off her prodigious talent on every track. But she owes a debt of gratitude to several others. Throughout the record, the vocals of Lynne Fiddmont and Kenya Hathaway add greatly to the arrangements, as does Thomas Bartlett's Wurlitzer piano, and Evan Smith's sax.
And then there's Jack Antonoff. As he did on Masseduction, Antonoff co-writes half the songs, produces the record, and plays drums and keyboards throughout. A pop sensation as a producer and multi-instrumentalist, Antonoff has produced and written songs and albums for Sara Bareilles, The Chicks, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Pink, and others. The guy is a hook machine that knows how to assemble a modern pop hit like almost no one else, and seems to do this while enhancing, not replacing, the artist's inherent strengths. St. Vincent made great records before Antonoff (producer John Congleton made Actor, Strange Mercy, and the stellar St. Vincent) but there is clearly magic in Antonoff's skill set.
It is hard for me to think of another artist to appear on the scene in the new millennium that that has produced a more interesting, and progressive, body of work. That she could follow her last two releases with one this good is nothing short of extraordinary.
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