St. Vincent - Under Appreciated Musician of the Week

Annie Clark, better known as her stage name 'St. Vincent', is one of the most unique artists around right now, or maybe even of this generation. A female Solo Artist bringing back guitar-centred music is an amazing thing to see, but this isn't your typical Rock and Roll girl from Oklahoma. With her use of 'fuzz' and 'overdrive' guitar pedals/effects with strangely intriguing lyrics, she has established her own sound that is slowly penetrating the mainstream.

St. Vincent performing at the O2 Academy in Brixton, London in 2017.

For an artist who has only gained true media and public recognition over the last 2/3 years, it may surprise some to know that St. Vincent has been around and creating music for the past 13 years. With her first LP, 'Marry Me' releasing in 2007. She has released six full length albums throughout her career so far, the latest being 2018's 'MassEducation', which was a piano centred re-work of her 2017 release, 'Masseduction' (Mass Seduction). I'll get back to these two releases, as they're both fantastic and compliment each other so well.

St. Vincent - 'Masseduction' (2017).

She first gained popularity when she performed with Nirvana at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during their 2014 Induction Ceremony. Nirvana performed 4 legendary hits at the show, 'Anuerysm', 'Lithium', 'All Apologies' and of course, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. For each of these songs, due to the obvious absence of former frontman Kurt Cobain, they brought out female singers to perform each of the songs. A brilliant move. St. Vincent performed 'Lithium', and it's widely considered the best performance of the night, and I strongly agree with this. Her deeper yet cleaner, compared to Cobain, tone of voice managed to show a new side to an already brilliant song, and she nailed it. You can watch that performance here. The other singers that night were Kim Gordon of 'Sonic Youth', Joan Jett and Lorde, all fantastic.

St. Vincent performing with Nirvana at their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2014.

So jumping forward to her latest releases, 2017's 'Masseduction' was quite a ballsy move from Annie. Mixing Pop and Rock has been done many times before, the Green Day or My Chemical Romance Pop-Punk style for instance, but nobody has had a heavy amount of guitar effects and riffs over a thumping electronic beat. The album is great, with my favourite song being 'Los Ageless'. It's a prime example of a great noisy riff over an electro beat, and with her calming voice over all of this, it sounds like it would be a mess but the end result is just really great. The whole album is like that, and I encourage you to listen, as there's nothing else out there like it, really. Also, her use of odd guitar tunings is great to listen to, as it's so different. Very few artists can write a song on a guitar with every string tuned to the same note, listen to the solo on the title track, 'Masseduction', its crazy.

St. Vincent 'Masseduction' Photo Shoot; 2017.

But 2018's 'MassEducation' changed the game. It's the same tracklist, minus one song, as 2017's 'Masseduction', but without guitar's and electro beats, it's all piano. It's phenomenal, and I didn't think I'd like it at all, but again the piano version of 'Los Ageless' is so good! It shows how good her songs actually are, how diverse they are and how they can be performed under multiple genres, it's such an impressive feat, and really deserves more appreciation and attention, in my opinion.

St. Vincent - 'MassEducation' (2018).

So yeah, this weeks Under Appreciated Musician is Annie Clark, St. Vincent. An incredibly talented and diverse artist that is changing the game with every new release. I can't wait to see what she does next. Thank you for reading.