St Vincent shares new song ‘Flea’ featuring Dave Grohl and Justin Madel-Johnsen
With a profound sense of swagger and an all-star roster, St Vincent is back with the second single, ‘Flea’ from the forthcoming release All Born Screaming. The chronicled rock opera sees her team up with Dave Grohl on drums and Justin Madel-Johnsen on bass.
There are great segments throughout the song, but you half wonder whether the trio tried to achieve too much in their brief time together. The constant modality shift is effective in delivering something fresh, but at a certain point, you want a discreet flavour to sink your teeth into.
Beginning with a poppy bass-driven hook, St Vincent lustfully sings over a sparse arrangement that erupts somewhat as she hits a searing rev on her guitar and Grohl pounds out a trademark melodic beat. Thereafter, it returns to sparsity and back again all too quickly, almost as though the song doesn’t have itself figured out prior to being pressed to record.
This is proved further by a great middle eight – a musically very interesting movement – that still ends up just about overstaying its welcome and leaving a touch unsure as a listener about what the song is trying to achieve. The result leaves you impressed with the musicianship but alienated from the song as a whole.
The hope is that the other contributions to All Born Screaming are rather more honed as she also welcomes Cate Le Bon, Stella Mozgawa, Rachel Eckroth, Mark Guiliana, Josh Freese and David Ralicke into her follow-up to Daddy’s Home. Such an impressive roster of names guarantees creativity and craft in abundance, but will it deliver succinct and sincere servings like ‘New York’?
‘Flea’ is a track that just about teeters towards negative on that front. It has a profound sense of booming attitude and is resplendent with a subverted hook that hints at Annie Clark at her quirky best, but it just doesn’t toe the line enough to deliver wholeheartedly on what it has in place, resulting in something that feels a little hollow, albeit never that far from a great artistic accomplishment.
All Born Screaming is due for release on April 26th. You can listen to ‘Flea’ below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.