“We’re all born screaming,” sings Annie Clark, who performs as St. Vincent. Her name comes from a lyric by Nick Cave—“And Dylan Thomas died drunk in St. Vincent’s hospital.” That’s me, she said, “where poetry comes to die.” She was joking.
All Born Screaming is the title of Clark’s 2024 album and tour, and an idea she has been carrying around for nearly 20 years, since just after dropping out of Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Out of the womb, we’re all terrified and traumatized; we have no words, no defenses. Gradually we get cuter, and then we become alienated from each other. St. Vincent, now 41, grazes the mainstream, but she can’t help but be herself. And we, who love her, don’t want her to be normal. She can shred on guitar like no one else. Her voice has a chilly beauty that can go straight for the heart when you least expect it. She makes people uncomfortable. She’s got three Grammys. She’s not in it for trophies.
