St. Vincent

St. Vincent (a.k.a. Annie Clark) has gone from strength to strength since the release of the internationally-acclaimed Strange Mercy in September. Debuting at #18 in the Billboard Top 200 in the US and being scored 9.0 by Pitchfork, the album has racked up the year-end list accolades: #7 in NME, #8 in Q, #9 in Time, #10 in the Sunday Times and #26 in Rolling Stone (US) among many others. She graced the covers of the September issue of SPIN as well as Under the Radar. Network television appearances have included The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and an upcoming shot on Conan. In February, she will be featured in the wildly popular US television series Gossip Girl.

Strange Mercy features very little of the baroque strings, woodwinds, and reeds that marked 2009’s Actor, and the grooves are sturdy, deep and beguiling. "I wanted to make things direct and immediate," Clark says. "I didn't tinker. I tried to keep the arrangements pretty simple and use just enough instrumentation to get the point across. I didn't want anything to get in the way." Consequently, it's a much more guitar-oriented album than Clark has ever made. She is one of the most gifted guitarists to come along in the new millennium, and Strange Mercy is filigreed with indelible hooklines and ingenious rhythm parts, not to mention debonair solos and a couple of glorious Frippy freakouts.

Annie is also hard at work on a much-anticipated collaboration album with the legendary David Byrne. Previously, she has recorded and performed with The National and dueted with Bon Iver on a track for Twilight: New Moon.

While Annie has performed in Australia in a solo capacity at Sydney Festival, this will be the Australian debut of her new full-band show which had the Guardian raving in its 4-star review of the London show: “Pure and luscious…(sending) prickles up the spine. Clark extracts maximum fuzziness from her guitar, her plectrum technique so fierce that a woman sitting near me gasps: “She plays like a man!”

NME 9/10

“Virtuosity and accessibility have never been easy bedfellows, but Strange Mercy is one of those rare albums that makes you think and makes you fall in love.”

PITCHFORK 9/10 - BEST NEW MUSIC 

“Clark's role-playing is grounded in emotions that are as cryptic as they are genuine and affecting. And when her voice can't bear it, her guitar does the screaming.”

THE OBSERVER (UK) 10/10

“Clark has a knack for memorable melody and a winning voice with shades of Kate Bush and Leslie Feist.”

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