USA - 2024
Art Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Industrial Rock
« Empty cup and a can full of marigolds ». Vanitas was a genre of art appearing mostly during the 16th and 17th century, using symbols to talk about mortality, a constant reminder that our lives will end in one way or another. In St Vincent’s All Born Screaming, she paints a new kind of vanitas. This time it’s a color, somewhere between orange and yellow. The opening line from Hell Is Near is the reminder. Marigolds are often used during the Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico. And this flower, just like fire, oscillates between orange and yellow.
With this cinematic opening song, St Vincent starts a new conversation. « Signs of life, the beginning / Our beginning, begin again ». Loss and grief came back into her life without knocking, and there she stands, with that mortal reminder, that she needs to start a new process, this time to heal and embrace her wounds.
Every single album recorded by Annie Clark is precisely crafted around one sonic identity completely in sync with her lyrical themes. For grief, she delves into raw and piercing industrial sounds tainted with a lighter touch of airy melodies. And as she weaves in this brand new environment, Clark rewatches the core memories that made her worldview crumble. « I watched you all night till the dawn had come / And the angels came down and picked you up / Breathless » she sings on the second song, Reckless. All Born Screaming is brutal, anxious and melancholic. And on this healing journey, her first step is all about acknowlegding how grief engraves itself within the bodies of the living.
« And every part of you is in me now ». Her loved one goes away, but it all stays here. It affects the body and the mind, the way the dead keep living with us. And what St Vincent understands on the album’s first half (whether it’s Reckless, Broken Man or Flea ) is how much keeping the memory of someone inside you can be hurtful.
« I’m just a hungry little flea / Jumping on somebody’s warm body / When you start to itch and scrath and scream / Once I’m in you can’t get rid of me ». There’s no precise interpretation that says what the flea represents in this song. However, the flea’s main characteristic is its contagiousness. St Vincent’s flea acts like a worm, crawling under your skin, travelling everywhere from your brain to your heart and your toes, nothing’s left untouched. Just like grief, it’s a body invasion that changes you the same way Jeff Goldblum does in Cronenberg’s movie.
And even though she tries to appear powerful at the beginning of Broken Man, « On the street I’m a king-sized killer / I can make your kingdom come », the way the guitars and drums rush in and vanish repeatedly betrays her unstable state of mind and body. Broken Man acts like Clark’s new anthem for finally being able to express all the pain she hides inside. Whether it’s in the music video or on stage, her body moves like a fractured pantomime as she shouts « Hey what are you looking at ? Like you never seen a broken man ». Because what St Vincent tackles in this song, is the familiar capacity of people and societies to put on a blindfold whenever grief surfaces in their peers’ behavior.
« Don’t kid, don’t blame, don’ snap, insane / Don’t crack, don’t act your age / It’s all the rage / Do ask but don’t tell, don’t laugh but do smile » is one part of Clark’s inner monologue during Big Time Nothing. And if these words can indeed be heard as coming from within (the sound of depression and anxiety), they can also be heard as coming from her surroundings : grief should stay inside, don’t show it.
But All Born Screaming is an act of self-expression. It’s a cry bursting out that no one can stop. « I was a pantomime of a modern girl / Those where the days and I was miserable / A karaoke version of Leonard’s Hallelujah / My whole damn life, I had never exhaled / Well ». On the final song that give its name to the album, the movement finally changes. The air doesn’t go in anymore, it goes out. It’s all in this « Well » at the end of the line above. This « Well » is a proof that St Vincent has come to terms with her grief and is now ready to let everything shows on the outside.
This is also why the final song is much quieter than the ones on the first half, despite its name. With Cate Le Bon on board, All Born Screaming takes on a neo-psychedelia sound that appears like a breath of fresh hair hinting at Annie Clark’s forthcoming rebuild. Because if death tear her tower down, if she feels « like a graffiti on a urinal in the abattoir », the whole album’s second half gets rid of the anxiety and turns to another kind of feeling, melancholy and love.
« I forgot people could be so kind / In these violent times / Dollar signs / Almost lost it chasing dollar signs / Know the cost but I forgot the price / Of buying my lie ». On the James Bond theme-like Violent Times, St Vincent recalls how easy it is to forget yourself and only see the dread, how accessible denial is, how much it can make everything good feel out of reach. But as she rebuilds herself, St Vincent keeps getting inspired while inspiring others.
On Sweetest Fruit, she pays tribute to SOPHIE and Daniel Sotomayor, two queer icons who burned away like shooting stars while, at the same time, repeating « You’re a natural, baby / You don’t have to quit ». Inspirations and inspiring words come together to fill our hearts with a newfound strength to keep on going, despite how long the journey might take. At least for her, it took quite some time as she states on the reggae-infused So Many Planets : « I have to visit so many planets / Before I find my own / I fall asleep in the golden highway / Before I finally find it ».
But out of all these struggles, one image sticks out on Violent Times : « All of the wasted nights chasing mortality / When in the ashes of Pompeii / Lovers discovered in an embrace / For all eternity ». A symbolic sculpture of dead lovers frozen in the arms of each other, St Vincent’s ultimate representation of romance. The first image was a reminder of death, the last one is a reminder of love. And as babies scream their way into life, we remember too, that nothing can stay buried inside us for too long.
With this cinematic opening song, St Vincent starts a new conversation. « Signs of life, the beginning / Our beginning, begin again ». Loss and grief came back into her life without knocking, and there she stands, with that mortal reminder, that she needs to start a new process, this time to heal and embrace her wounds.
Every single album recorded by Annie Clark is precisely crafted around one sonic identity completely in sync with her lyrical themes. For grief, she delves into raw and piercing industrial sounds tainted with a lighter touch of airy melodies. And as she weaves in this brand new environment, Clark rewatches the core memories that made her worldview crumble. « I watched you all night till the dawn had come / And the angels came down and picked you up / Breathless » she sings on the second song, Reckless. All Born Screaming is brutal, anxious and melancholic. And on this healing journey, her first step is all about acknowlegding how grief engraves itself within the bodies of the living.
« And every part of you is in me now ». Her loved one goes away, but it all stays here. It affects the body and the mind, the way the dead keep living with us. And what St Vincent understands on the album’s first half (whether it’s Reckless, Broken Man or Flea ) is how much keeping the memory of someone inside you can be hurtful.
« I’m just a hungry little flea / Jumping on somebody’s warm body / When you start to itch and scrath and scream / Once I’m in you can’t get rid of me ». There’s no precise interpretation that says what the flea represents in this song. However, the flea’s main characteristic is its contagiousness. St Vincent’s flea acts like a worm, crawling under your skin, travelling everywhere from your brain to your heart and your toes, nothing’s left untouched. Just like grief, it’s a body invasion that changes you the same way Jeff Goldblum does in Cronenberg’s movie.
And even though she tries to appear powerful at the beginning of Broken Man, « On the street I’m a king-sized killer / I can make your kingdom come », the way the guitars and drums rush in and vanish repeatedly betrays her unstable state of mind and body. Broken Man acts like Clark’s new anthem for finally being able to express all the pain she hides inside. Whether it’s in the music video or on stage, her body moves like a fractured pantomime as she shouts « Hey what are you looking at ? Like you never seen a broken man ». Because what St Vincent tackles in this song, is the familiar capacity of people and societies to put on a blindfold whenever grief surfaces in their peers’ behavior.
« Don’t kid, don’t blame, don’ snap, insane / Don’t crack, don’t act your age / It’s all the rage / Do ask but don’t tell, don’t laugh but do smile » is one part of Clark’s inner monologue during Big Time Nothing. And if these words can indeed be heard as coming from within (the sound of depression and anxiety), they can also be heard as coming from her surroundings : grief should stay inside, don’t show it.
But All Born Screaming is an act of self-expression. It’s a cry bursting out that no one can stop. « I was a pantomime of a modern girl / Those where the days and I was miserable / A karaoke version of Leonard’s Hallelujah / My whole damn life, I had never exhaled / Well ». On the final song that give its name to the album, the movement finally changes. The air doesn’t go in anymore, it goes out. It’s all in this « Well » at the end of the line above. This « Well » is a proof that St Vincent has come to terms with her grief and is now ready to let everything shows on the outside.
This is also why the final song is much quieter than the ones on the first half, despite its name. With Cate Le Bon on board, All Born Screaming takes on a neo-psychedelia sound that appears like a breath of fresh hair hinting at Annie Clark’s forthcoming rebuild. Because if death tear her tower down, if she feels « like a graffiti on a urinal in the abattoir », the whole album’s second half gets rid of the anxiety and turns to another kind of feeling, melancholy and love.
« I forgot people could be so kind / In these violent times / Dollar signs / Almost lost it chasing dollar signs / Know the cost but I forgot the price / Of buying my lie ». On the James Bond theme-like Violent Times, St Vincent recalls how easy it is to forget yourself and only see the dread, how accessible denial is, how much it can make everything good feel out of reach. But as she rebuilds herself, St Vincent keeps getting inspired while inspiring others.
On Sweetest Fruit, she pays tribute to SOPHIE and Daniel Sotomayor, two queer icons who burned away like shooting stars while, at the same time, repeating « You’re a natural, baby / You don’t have to quit ». Inspirations and inspiring words come together to fill our hearts with a newfound strength to keep on going, despite how long the journey might take. At least for her, it took quite some time as she states on the reggae-infused So Many Planets : « I have to visit so many planets / Before I find my own / I fall asleep in the golden highway / Before I finally find it ».
But out of all these struggles, one image sticks out on Violent Times : « All of the wasted nights chasing mortality / When in the ashes of Pompeii / Lovers discovered in an embrace / For all eternity ». A symbolic sculpture of dead lovers frozen in the arms of each other, St Vincent’s ultimate representation of romance. The first image was a reminder of death, the last one is a reminder of love. And as babies scream their way into life, we remember too, that nothing can stay buried inside us for too long.