Annie Clark has been teasing her upcoming album since last month, with posters touting its “[w]arm Wurlitzers and wit, glistening guitars and grit” and “sleaze and style for days” already popping up. But now it’s official: St. Vincent’s sixth album, Daddy’s Home, comes out on May 14. The title comes from the inspiration behind the album: Clark began writing this record following the end of her father’s prison sentence, a nine year incarceration for what she describes as “white-collar nonsense” in a Rolling Stone interview.
According to a Daddy’s Home press release, the music is inspired by old vinyl Clark listened to with her dad growing up, so the album is taking on a ’70s-influenced sound, particularly tied to “music made in sepia-toned downtown New York from 1971-1975.” Jack Antonoff is back as co-producer, but it’s sonically already miles away from 2017’s Masseduction.
The lead single, “Pay Your Way In Pain,” captures the essence of the early and mid-’70s, going full funk—but with a distinct St. Vincent twist. It’s very “What if St. Vincent made her own Young Americans?”
The video, directed by Bill Benz (who also directed Clark’s upcoming, extremely meta movie with Carrie Brownstein, The Nowhere Inn), also introduces a new aesthetic for St. Vincent. She’s wearing a similar outfit to the one from the Daddy’s Home promo posters, donning a bobbed blonde wig, a forest green suit, and gold jewelry. As Clark says in the press release, “Daddy’s Home collects stories of being down and out in downtown NYC. Last night’s heels on the morning train. Glamour that’s been up for three days straight.”