St. Vincent at Pohoda 2018

St. Vincent at Pohoda 2018

One of the most outstanding artists of the present day, St. Vincent, will perform at Pohoda 2018. She won the Grammy Award for her album St. Vincent, NME and The Guardian described it as the best recording of 2014. In October, she recorded her fifth album Masseduction and the media are generous with superlatives again: “MASSEDUCTION is nothing less than an absolute success” (musicOMH). “With her fourth record St. Vincent, she stepped up her pink staircase to a whole new realm as a once in a generation artist”. (DIY) She is going to pay a visit to her fans during the summer tour next year, which will show her impressive amount of talent and eccentric guitar solos also in Trenčín. 

29. November 2017

St. began playing guitar as a 12-year-old. She was a classic-rock kid—Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana—and later on Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. As a teenage girl, she had a part time job at her uncleʼs tours, an excellent guitarist and a member of the Tuck & Patti jazz duo. She studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music for three years. Then she returned to Texas, where she joined the symphonic-rock band The Polyphonic Spree. Her last “changeover” before the start of her own career was Sufjan Stevensʼ band, which she joined during their European tour in 2016. The same year, she began to use the artistic name St. Vincent that she adopted from a Nick Caveʼs song. It refers to the hospital (St. Vincent), where the poet Dylan Thomas passed away.

One year later, she released her debut Marry Me, which immediately gave her recognition and comparison to artists such as Kate Bush and David Bowie. The album brought her the PLUG Female Artist of the Year award. Even more successful was the second album Actor, which made it among TOP 10 records in the Independent Albums Chart. The next album Strange Mercy was even among the 20 best-selling albums of the American Billboard hit chart. In 2012, she recorded the album Love This Giant with David Byrne (singer of the legendary band Talking Heads). She has definitely established herself amongst the greatest names of contemporary music with her fourth studio album called St. Vincent. It was the best record of the year according to NME, Gigwise, The Guardian, and MusicIMH; Time ranked it in the second place. The album brought her the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, and she became the second woman to win this award (Sinéad OʼConnor won the first year).

St. Vincent has recently also tried the role of director when she cooperated on the horror film XX, and she also became the first female ambassador of the Record Store Day. On 13 of October, she released the fifth album Masseduction, which is about power and seduction in the political, personal, and sexual plane. Contrary to the provocative visual side of the album is the first single “New York” that features a fine piano play, singing, and lyrics uncovering emotional vulnerability. As Kim Hillyard of The Line of The Best Fit described it: The album is a succinct and disconcerting picture of our times. Dystopian sugar-high electro, ballads of alienation, its thirteen tracks of pop phantasmagoria are as addictive and unsettling as the clawing social constructs we all, for better or worse, play along with.” Compared with previous recordings, Masseduction is much more synthpop and dance. St. Vincent told about it for The Line of Best Fit: This needs to be something people can really dance to until they listen to the words and then they’re crying.” St. Vincent will perform her personal recording full of counterparts and emotions and also virtuoso solos, unusual stage choreography, and especially great music at Pohoda 2018.

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