Heartbreak in the Big City

As the "smartest indie-rock star of her generation", St. Vincent (Annie Clark) is arguably best known for her virtuosic guitar solos (despite other noteworthy claims to fame such as being the first woman to design guitars for the mass market and one-time ambassador to the tiny northern Russian island of "Recorstorda"). With "New York", the latest single which may or may not be the first taste of her upcoming fifth album, Clark swaps the experimental guitar noise and damning societal critique for a simple and heartfelt piano ballad. It's a moving tribute to the Big Apple, which can no longer be experienced in the same way now that "the only motherfucker in the city" who can handle her, stand her, and forgive her is no longer there:

'I have lost a heroI have lost a friendBut for you, darlingI'd do it all again'

Lyrics: Genius

The accelerating drum machines and sombre strings that accompany the chorus echoes the plaintive loss in Clark's poignant vocals, which also laments the loss of other possible social connections: 'So much for a home run/ With some blue bloods ... Too few of our old crew/ Left on Astor'. The stripped-down, soul-baring nature of the track makes it easier to comprehend Clark's decision to debut it on stage while dressed as a purple toilet at a New York benefit concert last year. At only two-and-a-half minutes, the song does not quite live up to Clark's claim that her fifth album will be the "deepest, boldest" work she has ever put forth. It does, however, hint that her new work will be headed into an entirely different direction that the sophisticated artifice of her highly acclaimed 2014 self-titled album.