St. Vincent with Shearwater

Guitarist/composer/vocalist Annie Clark’s great-grandmother’s middle name was St. Vincent. Clark named her band St. Vincent as a way to bring her along on the adventure. Before releasing Marry Me, St. Vincent’s debut, in 2007, Clark performed and toured with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens—acts noted for their distinctive and certainly dissimilar sounds. There is nothing about St. Vincent’s music to connect the 27-year-old Clark with the Spree’s big-band sun worship or Stevens’ clockwork, pointy minimalism.

The beauty is that St. Vincent doesn’t sound much like any other band, period. As a guitarist, Clark has a diverse and still-growing set of sounds. She writes smart, literate lyrics that can sound like antique clock chimes in her voice. Instead of the confessionals or bad attitudes one often associates with music-makers looking down the barrel of 30, Clark’s lyrics lean more toward ciphers or magic realism. (Chris Barrett)