Annie Clark alias St. Vincent is everybody's darling: The 35-year-old US singer/guitarist inspires critics and colleagues alike, celebrates remarkable commercial successes and was even a regular guest in the tabloid press due to her liaison with an English star model. All this she deals with on her album "Masseduction", with which she holds court over her environment and herself. At the same time, a heavy legacy is being inherited: The self-titled predecessor of 2014 was awarded a Grammy. How Annie Clark deals with expectations eclipsed experienced in London.
It can be so easy to face the pressure: "You just make a better album than last time. And when I started this, I wasn't thinking about other people's expectations. But I have invested more time to make sure that the songs are rock solid. This is achieved by putting all your energy into art." That's what Annie Clark spent the last two years with. She entrenched herself in her studio and led an ascetic existence full of work and even more work. Withdrawn and with a long list of subjects that burned her on the black lacquered nails.
She worked through these topics with a lot of cynicism. For example, it criticizes the American health system, which prescribes tablets against everything; Hollywood's delusions of youth and beauty or its prom culture. Things that are just as crazy as the current US president, except nobody gets upset about it. "It's a Peter Pan world. And a continuation of the phenomenon from the eighties, which has to do with Wall Street and cocaine, namely to perfect oneself. And that is through consumption and with the thought that this is a valuable and noble thing. It's like doing something for the common good by taking care of yourself. People talk about green smoothies like they cure cancer. It's a form of narcissism."
