St. Vincent is one of music’s most unpredictable shapeshifters, constantly fusing art-pop experimentation and catchy guitar-rock songwriting to create new sounds. “Big Time Nothing,” her latest single, is an addictively relistenable track full of sonic surprises. It starts with a woozy, buzzing bassline backed by looping, crunchy drums, while St. Vincent directs the listener: “don’t walk, you’re late/don’t fall from grace/behave, don’t trip/sashay, ok, sashay.” The mood is ominous and intense – until the addition of some funky rhythm guitar and bass that recalls an old Prince classic slowed to half-speed. There’s a whole range of thrilling sounds on the track: stabs of electronic orchestration, multi-tracked 80’s style chorus melodies, and trademark distorted guitar squeals.
After the releases of “Flea” and “Broken Man,” “Big Time Nothing” marks the third single from All Born Screaming, which drops this Friday, April 26th. It’s St. Vincent’s seventh album, but the first she has self-produced. Her list of collaborators is pretty enticing: rock icon Dave Grohl, drum innovator Mark Guiliana, singer-songwriter Rachel Eckworth, and Paramore producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen.
In February, St. Vincent joined WXPN Morning Show host Kristen Kurtis and discussed an exciting Philly connection to the lead single “Broken Man.” The track was shot right outside of Philly and its creative direction was overseen by the local artist Alex Da Corte, who has also recently collaborated with Tierra Whack. She told Kurtis: “I came to Philly early on in conceiving of what the album world, the visual world, looks like to meet with Alex and we went to the Philly museum, and most specifically he showed me Duchamp’s final piece. which I had not seen, which is so violent and beautiful and messed up, blew my mind. And so all these things, we just go and see art together and then that informs the visual side of this record.”
At the end of the interview, she added: “I fucking love Philly.” St. Vincent’s North American tour will begin in May and includes a September 6th show at The Met, featuring the futuristic rock experimenter Yves Tumor as opener. Details at the WXPN Concert Calendar.