From Brian Eno to Nina Simone: A playlist of St Vincent’s favourite songs
Calling an artist strictly ‘art rock’ tends not to tell the full picture of what they’re all about. Any artist can make music that’s a little bit left of field, but the true artistes of the genre know how to take their sound and expand on it, so it’s more of a tapestry of different styles rather than just one catch-all. St Vincent never claimed to be defined by just one style of music, and some of her favourite tracks of all time are far more eclectic than her usual approach.
That’s not to say that there isn’t at least a little bit of indie flair to go around. When singling out the greatest in her field, she thought that Stereolab’s ‘Nomos Et Phusis’ was one of her favourite songs. Given how much they rely on different textures to create their own distinct sound, the electronica outfit feels like a kindred spirit to what St Vincent had been doing on albums like Masseduction.
That kind of layering of textures is much more evident on tracks like ‘New Slaves’ by Kanye West. Although the Chicago rapper has done everything he can to throw his reputation off a cliff in the modern age, this is still one of his better tracks from the album Yeezus, featuring scathing lyrics about what he sees on the street every day while also balancing every maximalist instrument he can fit into the stereo image.
Outside of contemporary artists, St Vincent also has a love for a lot of the titans of electronic soundscapes. Before many had even started putting together their first albums, Brian Eno taught young artists how to work with electronic instruments, practically using the synthesiser as a tool on the song ‘Here Come the Warm Jets’.
The instrument is not the only thing that drives someone to become the best. It’s about how you use the instrument in front of you, and Nina Simone’s ‘Everyone’s Gone to Moon’ is the perfect example of how to use the human voice in exactly the way it was meant to be used, sounding like she’s putting little pins in your heart every time she sings one of the verses.
Considering how many of these artists have been known for their experience in jazz, hip-hop and electronica, where is the rock side of St Vincent’s sound represented? Rest assured, some rock is present among her favourites…just from the artsy side of the spectrum. Singling out songs like Sufjan Stevens’ folk-rock delight ‘Age of Adz’ and David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, St Vincent is telling the story of what music means to her.
Because when you look at all of these songs next to each other, it sounds like the musical equivalent of a fever dream. None of them necessarily work well when being thrown together for a dinner party, but the beauty comes from just how disjointed they are.
Though they may seem to be taking place on multiple different planets, depending on what song you’re listening to, it’s all about being able to make a song that stands the test of time regardless of having it fit into one box. That’s what separates the art rockers from the by-the-numbers artists, and as for St Vincent, some of the best songs in the world are never limited to one side of the musical spectrum.
