Suggesting that a woman’s screams are one of the best things about her art feels highly problematic in many ways, particularly when that artist is St Vincent, an athlete-level guitar player with a body of work that pulsates with intelligence and hot licks. St Vincent’s screams are next-level, though: guttural howls tinged with sex and suffering, informed by soul and punk; bravura moments where she holds a note for about a fortnight. Although these outbursts sound like wild abandon, they are precision-tooled. St Vincent is a performer who, having reduced her lungs to flaccid sacs, can go straight back into playing a riff on her custom designed guitar with a smirk.
On a hot night in Oxford at the start of her UK tour (and Pride month), St Vincent unleashes her scream early in the set on Daddy’s Home, the title track of her sixth album. Released in 2021, Daddy’s Home marked Annie Clark’s father’s release from prison – and so much else – through the prism of 70s-era sounds. It won her a Grammy, her third. Although St Vincent’s autobiography is often encoded in her work, subtly and not so subtly, Daddy’s Home reflects more candidly that although her father “did time” for fraud, “I did some time too”. The album is, in short, a kind of massive exhalation. And so is this gig.
