St. Vincent is the apparent reincarnation of Prince
St. Vincent (Anne Clark) rose to prominence with the 2014 album St. Vincent, at which time she was certainly one of the most unusual people in the “mainstream”–if mainstream music even exists today. She also displayed quite a talent for rolling around on stage (37:00 minute mark):
She’s an art rocker who attended the Berklee College Of Music. With 2017’s Masseduction, the art rock became more explicit and downright kinky:
So now in 2018, she released MassEducation, a song-by-song self-cover of the entire Masseduction album. What makes it different is that it’s 100% voice and piano. So, you must focus on lyrics such as “I can’t turn off what turns me on” with an arrangement that could occur in any jazz/standards lounge anywhere. The meaning isn’t drowned out by the visuals and production here. I guess that’s the point. Brave new world. Postmodern Jukebox to your own work.
All of this brought to mind one of the more unconventional mainstream pop hits of all time: Prince’s rhythm and falsetto Kiss:
Naturally, (in the postmodern genre) old-school Tom Jones almost immediately released a more conventional cover. It was also a genuine 1980s hit:
St. Vincent: Arty, explicit, professional risk-taker
Prince: Arty, explicit, professional risk-taker
Don’t expect or even try to like everything they have created, but expect to be surprised.