Album Review: St Vincent - 'Daddy's Home'

Shedding the latex bodysuit of Masseduction like a snake sheds its skin, St Vincent leaves behind the glam dominatrix psychosexual manoeuvres and in answering the who-can-I-be-now? call of Bowie she delivers an album that brings to mind the blue eyed soul of Young Americans. 

St Vincent takes musical inspiration from her father’s record collection that was curated in the '70s. The jaunty opening song Pay Your Way In Pain grinds to an insistent funk groove reminiscent of Fame. The tight and extremely precise approach typically associated with St Vincent is replaced with freewheelingly easy vibes and a more organic sound; references to Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Sly Stone, Bowie, Neil Young and even Pink Floyd abound. 

As we drift across Live In The Dream it does feel as though St Vincent is paraphrasing Pink Floyd rather than dealing the kind of genuine innovation on which her reputation rests. Still it is kind of astonishing that St Vincent could seemingly flick a switch to achieve such an accomplished stylistic change of direction. 

This is also the album where St Vincent opens up about her father’s incarceration over the past decade for financial fraud. Although tight lipped about her private life the story recently became tabloid fodder. Regaining some control over the situation without necessarily becoming confessional, St Vincent deals a mess of stream of conscious style lyrics that explore moods and feelings with her usual gritty sarcastic wit. 

On so many levels this album is less about daddy than St Vincent trying to figure out and make sense of the cheap, gritty, tawdry world whirling around her. Yet what she seeks to discover is elusive and remains hidden in the dark depths of the mix. “If life’s a joke then I’m dying laughing,” she coos in restless existential noir-ish tones on The Laughing Man. Amusingly she goes on to re-work Sheena Easton’s Morning Train into the sweet love song My Baby Wants A Baby. 

Whilst not as bold or as brash as Masseduction, St Vincent deals an accomplished album where her songs fit together as a cohesive whole, making for compelling listening right through to the very end.

Find out more about St Vincent here.