St. Vincent has a new album on the way.
In a new interview with MOJO that was shared on r/indieheads (via Stereogum), the Grammy-winning rocker revealed that her MASSEDUCTION follow-up will arrive in late spring or summer of 2021. While discussing the record’s sound and influences, the artist born Annie Clark said that it will be “a tectonic shift” from the maximalist synth-pop that permeated her 2017 album.
“I felt I had gone as far as I could possibly go with angularity,” she told MOJO. “I was interested in going back to the music I’ve listened to more than any other — Stevie Wonder records from the early ’70s, Sly And The Family Stone. I studied at the feet of those masters.”
Compared to MASSEDUCTION’s bright pink album cover and the record’s tonal shimmer, Clark said that its follow-up will be a 180-degree turn into the “the color palette of the world of Taxi Driver” and “Gena Rowlands in a Cassavetes film,” insinuating that it will have a much grittier and/or solemn mood.
“I just wanted to capture the colors, the film stock, and tell these stories of being down and out, down on your luck,” Clark said.
She added that she was likely “subconsciously drawn” to that era of post-’60s turbulence, and she surmises that 2021 will feel similarly disorienting as we exit the most chaotic period this generation has ever experienced. “I imagine that’s where the mood will be in 2021,” she said. “This immense amount of transition and, probably, a real resourcefulness and scrappiness.”
When touring finally resumes in a post-COVID world, Clark said that her way of presenting these new songs will be a dramatic shift from the high-production bombast of the MASSEDUCTION tour cycle.
“My last tour was a whole bunch of production and high-concept video and razzle-dazzle and I can’t go any further with that,” Clark said. “I’m going to come down and just play. I don’t think high-gloss sheen is going to be that resonant with people because it will feel very much ‘let them eat cake.’”
That’s all the details she gave on the release, so stay tuned for an official announcement that will likely arrive sometime in the coming months. Until then, you can catch St. Vincent performing during Yoshiki’s upcoming livestream event alongside Marilyn Manson.
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