Mommy's Home

St. Vincent is one of those truly gifted artists whose talent is so exuberant that you never quite know what they will come back with next. Think of a female Prince, if the comparison is not too daring. The point is — whenever this lady announces a new project, everyone opens their ears, ready for anything. This year, she came back with frequent collaborator (and other highly versatile musical genius) Jack Antonoff to present the world with Daddy’s Home, her 6th solo album (excluding David Byrne collaboration Love this Giant, that is). And this surprise is perhaps the best one we ever got from her…

The last time we heard new St. Vincent (real name: Annie Clark) material, back in 2017 with MASSEDUCTION, she had us standing somewhere in-between pop, electronica and experimental explorations. Interestingly, that album was already co-produced with Jack Antonoff, proof if any of our aforementioned versatility claim. What happened since then did change the artist’s life quite a bit: her father came back from years in prison for fraud right before the pandemic… then the pandemic hit. Anyone would have been affected by this one-two emotional punch, let alone an artist of Clark’s stature.

What came out of that was a stark departure from earlier efforts insofar as we now seem to be nowhere near pop music — but still very much into experimental and progressive material. Albeit of a different kind: instead of trying to look forward and forge the sound of the future, this album is very much trying to develop the singular voice of the artist, where she came from (musically and geographically), who she was, is and perhaps will remain… The result is a highly polished album full of lavish tracks alternatively dipped in Prince-infused soul (again), progressive rock à la Pink Floyd circa Dark Side of the Moon (which happens to be directly referenced to in the aptly named “The Melting of the Sun”) and/or Carpenters-style soft rock.

You may think that we are listing all these great artists of the past just to make Daddy’s Home look good, but that’s not even (entirely) the case: “Down and Out Downtown” is a beautiful nod to 70’s experimental soul, back when Marvin Gaye was in the process of widening the scope of the very genre (see: What’s Going On). Several songs on the album are quite obviously inspired by Pink Floyd’s orchestral arrangements, perhaps most notably “Live in the Dream”. Meanwhile, “Somebody Like Me” artfully associates delicate vocals and rhythm section to create a melancholic atmosphere Karen Carpenter would have appreciated. The list goes on…

… without a single hitch. Daddy’s Home is quite simply a beautiful piece of work that succeeds in mixing together influences of the past with the sonic subtlety made possible by contemporary production. While this in no way means St. Vincent’s next album will be remotely similar, we can’t help but hope that it is…