Listen to St. Vincent’s Funky First Daddy’s Home Single, “Pay Your Way in Pain”

The album is out May 14 on Loma Vista Recordings

By Scott Russell  |  March 4, 2021 | 7:00am
Photo by Zackery Michael
Music News St. Vincent
Listen to St. Vincent’s Funky First Daddy’s Home Single, “Pay Your Way in Pain”

The curtain’s been pulled back on another one of Paste’s most-anticipated 2021 releases, as St. Vincent (Annie Clark) has officially detailed her new album Daddy’s Home, coming May 14 via Loma Vista Recordings, and shared the video for its lead single, “Pay Your Way in Pain.”

Clark explained the loose concept behind her sixth album in a statement: “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.”

The musician has been teasing Daddy’s Home, the follow-up to her acclaimed, Jack Antonoff-co-produced MASSEDUCTION—one of Paste’s top albums of 2017—for quite a while, most recently via the trailer she shared on Tuesday:

For something of a concept album, Daddy’s Home’s title is quite literal. In winter 2019, on the heels of Clark’s two Grammy wins for MASSEDUCTION, her father was released from prison after nearly a decade behind bars, sparking songwriting that drew from the music he had shared with Clark when she was a child: “Music made in sepia-toned downtown New York from 1971-1975. Gritty. Grimy. Sleazy,” a press release teases, lining up with Clark’s 2020 comments about the album being influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Sly and The Family Stone.

“Pay Your Way in Pain” bears those ‘70s influences out in a big way—it’s a slinky, sexed-up synth-funk jam that feels retro all the way down to its analog-style sound mix, which frequently shifts Clark’s sensual, rhythmic moans from one headphone to the other as regal keys, unpredictable guitars and nimble low end swirl around the track in a fashion that would make Prince proud. Antonoff, returning as co-producer of Daddy’s Home, offers further evidence of his hitmaking magic touch: The track is shockingly hooky and cohesive, despite feeling so loaded up with bells and whistles. But Clark’s vocal performance is its most critical element, as she pulls off both howling funk freakouts and woozy pop verses. She’s equally bewitching in the lo-fi, variety special-style music video (dir. Bill Benz, of the forthcoming The Nowhere Inn, which Clark co-wrote and stars in), with a look that pays tribute to Candy Darling. The late Warhol superstar and Velvet Underground muse was a guiding light on Daddy’s Home as a whole; Clark channels her in promo photos and on the album cover, and titled its last track “Candy Darling.”

Watch the “Pay Your Way in Pain” video (plus a 2009 St. Vincent set from the Paste archives) below, and see the details of Daddy’s Home further down. You can preorder the album right here.

Daddy’s Home Tracklist:
01. Pay Your Way In Pain
02. Down And Out Downtown
03. Daddy’s Home
04. Live In the Dream
05. The Melting Of The Sun
06. The Laughing Man
07. Down
08. Somebody Like Me
09. My Baby Wants A Baby
10. …At The Holiday Party
11. Candy Darling

Daddy’s Home Album Art:

StVincentDaddysHomeArt.jpg

 
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