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1[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/annie_clark_st_vincent_6243.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:345: The PatronSaint of Guitar Shreds and LyricalDissonance]]
3
4->''"It's the place where poetry goes to die. That's me.''"
5-->--'''Annie Clark''', on her stage name.
6
7St. Vincent is the {{stage name}} of multi-instrumentalist Annie Erin Clark (born September 28, 1982). Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Annie was part of Music/ThePolyphonicSpree (a choral symphonic rock band) and part of Music/SufjanStevens' touring band before going solo with the name St. Vincent, which she claims to be either a reference to [[MultipleChoicePast Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, where the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died in 1953, or her grandmother's middle name]].
8
9St. Vincent also opened shows to diverse bands like Music/{{Television}}, Music/ArcadeFire, Music/DeathCabForCutie, Music/GrizzlyBear, and Music/AndrewBird. She and Music/BonIver also composed the song ''Roslyn,'' part of the ''[[Film/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]'' soundtrack- as one of the examples of critically-acclaimed musicians associated with the ''Film/{{Twilight}}'' movies.
10
11Annie Clark's music contains heavy guitar riffs (her signature instrument) together with somehow melodic singing and melodies, and [[LyricalDissonance angry lyrics]].
12
13In 2013, Annie was awarded the Smithsonian's American Ingenuity Award in the Performing Arts. At the 2015 Grammy Awards, her SelfTitledAlbum took home the award for Best Alternative Music Album, while ''Masseduction'' bagged the awards for Best Recording Package and Best Rock Song (for the title track) four years later, in 2019.
14
15She is queer, and previously dated Creator/CaraDelevingne.
16----
17!!Discography
18* ''Ratsliveonnoevilstar'' EP (2003, as Annie Clark)
19* ''Paris Is Burning'' EP (2006)
20* ''Marry Me'' (2007)
21* ''Actor'' (2009)
22* ''Strange Mercy'' (2011)
23** ''4AD Session'' (2012, live EP)
24* ''Music/LoveThisGiant'' (2012, with Music/DavidByrne)
25** ''Brass Tactics'' EP (2013)
26* ''St. Vincent'' (2014)
27* ''Masseduction'' (2017)
28** ''[=MassEducation=]'' (2018, acoustic album)
29** ''Nina Kraviz Presents Masseduction Rewired'' (2019, remix album)
30* ''Daddy's Home'' (2021)
31* ''All Born Screaming'' (2024)
32
33!!Relevant tropes related to her or her music are:
34
35* AloneInACrowd: The "Fast Slow Disco" video has this feel, where Annie starts to appear increasingly distressed in the middle a passionate crowd of scantily clad gay men.
36* AntiLoveSong: "Now, Now", "Marry Me" and "The Strangers" are particularly blatant examples, although there are many.
37* BecomeARealBoy: The prayer of "Prince Johnny", in a ShoutOut to ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.
38* CruelMercy : The central theme behind "Strange Mercy", both the song and the record.
39* DarkerAndEdgier: The dual-singles "Krokodil" and the Swans-esque "Grot", which compared to the rest of her work are outright brutal & menacing as well as having an extreme sense of mood-whiplash, especially with "Grot". Alas, nothing similar appeared on the more restrained ''St Vincent''.
40* DownerEnding:
41** The video for "Cruel": Annie is kidnapped by a motherless family, forced to be a housewife and routinely abused, until she's buried alive. The objective feel of the video and Annie's stoic demeanor make all this BlackComedy.
42** The video for "Cheerleader": Annie is a larger-than-life, hyper-realistic sculpture à la [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck Ron Mueck]] who comes to life. She tries to escape the gallery where she's kept, but ends up collapsing under her own weight.
43** ''Masseduction'', otherwise (mostly) consisting of upbeat power-pop, ends with "Smoking Section", which features Annie casually considering suicide.
44-->"And sometimes I go, to the edge of my roof/And I think I'll jump, [[{{Yandere}} just to punish you]]."
45* FaceOnTheCover: The albums ''[[https://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/0652637291926.jpg Actor]]'' and ''[[http://images.rapgenius.com/cf6ac70704b2ac1a8a4d62705cffbc4a.998x1000x1.jpg Marry Me]]'' simply have Annie Clark on the cover in her signature clear wide eyed gaze. ''[[https://media1.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/0602537727438.jpg St. Vincent]]'' has a full-body portrait of the artist sitting on a throne, ''[[https://sentireascoltare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Daddys-Home-st-vincent-1024x1024.jpg Daddy's Home]]'' has a sepia-tinted photo of her sitting in an armchair, and ''[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHgflvQbsAA76FX?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 All Born Screaming]]'' has her bent forwards and catching fire.
46* FunWithPalindromes: Before she was St. Vincent and was just a young student of the Berklee College of Music, she released an EP titled ''Ratsliveonnoevilstar''.
47* IncrediblyLongNote: She belts out a 17 second long one at the end of "Pay Your Way In Pain".
48* IntercourseWithYou: "Surgeon", depending upon one's interpretation; "Chloe in the Afternoon" and "Savior" are far less ambiguous, however.
49* LastNoteNightmare: "Black Rainbow" is a rather calm and melodic song (even though it contains some really [[LyricalDissonance depressing lyrics]]) that ends with some really heavy guitar distortion.
50* LyricalDissonance: ''Oh so much''. "Now, Now", "Black Rainbow", "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood", "Cheerleader", "Pills"... The list could go on and on.
51* LyricSwap:
52** In some live versions of "Strange Mercy", the lyric: "If I ever find the dirty policeman who roughed you up," is altered into a harsher "[[PrecisionFStrike fucked you up"]].
53** Likewise, the "Prince Johnny" lyric "And bragged of when and where and who you're gonna bed next" sometimes becomes "...and who you're gonna fuck next" when sung live.
54* LyricsVideoMismatch: "Slow Disco" is about the singer dealing with the realisation that their actual life isn't what they should be living. The "Fast" remix music video takes place at a steamy gay leather rave.
55* ManOnFire: The video for "Broken Man" sees St. Vincent spontaneously combust while performing the song.
56* ObligatoryBondageSong:
57** With references to "horsehair whips", [[SafeWord safe words]] ("who will hear/hear your word?"), and masochism ("heal my hurt"), "Chloe In the Afternoon" can definitely be interpreted as this.
58** "Savior" is very explicit in this regard.
59** And "Bring All Your Loves" has the very BDSM flavored lyrics of "I thought you were like a dog/But you made a pet of me" and "I took you off your leash".
60* PrecisionFStrike: In "New York":
61-->And if I call you from First Avenue\
62Where you're the only motherfucker in the city who can handle me.
63** Also used throughout the chorus for "Pills".
64* RearrangeTheSong: The violin and strings based "Slow Disco" has both a somber piano version called "Slow Slow Disco", and an upbeat club mix called "Fast Slow Disco".
65* RecurringCharacter: ''Marry Me'' introduces a character called Johnny who later reappears in ''St. Vincent'', ''Masseduction'' and ''Daddy's Home''.
66* {{Retreaux}}: ''Daddy's Home'' is inspired by the music scene in New York in the first half of the 70s. As a result, a lot of 70s-style music and video effects are in use in "Pay Your Way In Pain".
67* QuirkyCurls: Her dominant hairstyle until and including ''St. Vincent''.
68* SelfBackingVocalist: Being a one woman band, she usually does this. {{Subverted}} with ''Daddy's Home'' for which she recruited proper backing vocalists.
69* SelfTitledAlbum: It took her four albums to get there, but she got there and unlike other albums, there's a definite reason for the choice, indicating her growth and self-realization.
70-->'''St. Vincent''': “I was reading Miles Davis’ autobiography and in it he talks about how the hardest thing for any musician to do is to sound like yourself. And I thought, ‘You know what? I sound like myself on this record.'
71* TheSomethingSong: "The Apocalypse Song".
72* ShoutOut:
73** The lines "best finest surgeon, come cut me open", from the song "Surgeon", were originally written by Creator/MarilynMonroe on her diary.
74** The title of her first album, ''Marry Me'', also came after an episode from ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''.
75** "Chloe In The Afternoon" shares its name with [[Film/ChloeInTheAfternoon the 1972 Eric Rohmer French film]] ([[InNameOnly though the content in both is largely unrelated]]).
76** Her name, St. Vincent, might also be one derived from a Music/NickCave song.
77** The cover of the SelfTitledAlbum is reminescent of the visuals in ''Film/TheHolyMountain''.
78** "The Melting of the Sun" name-drops [[Music/JoniMitchell Joni]], [[Creator/MarilynMonroe Marilyn]], [[Music/ToriAmos Tori]] and [[Music/NinaSimone Nina]].
79* StalkerWithACrush: Implied with "Dilettante".
80* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "New York".
81* SurrealMusicVideo:
82** In "Digital Witness", she looks like a mental patient witnessing pseudo-military actions in a desolate, futuristic city.
83** "New York" is made up of a series of surreal, pastel-colored vignettes that don't seem to have much relation with each other nor with the song. Special mention goes to her posing on a sawed-in-half lilac couch with a live swan.
84* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Actor'' (some pressings), ''St. Vincent'', ''Masseduction'' and ''All Born Screaming''.
85* UnreliableNarrator: The speaker of "Champagne Year" openly admits that she makes a "living telling people what they want to hear" before declaring that it's going to be a "champagne year".

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