The song St. Vincent wants played at her funeral: “It makes me cry uncontrollably”
Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, is one of the most innovative artists around. Beginning her career as part of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band, Clark progressed into making her own music in 2006. Between her solo albums, appearing on the Twilight soundtrack, and collaborating with the likes of David Byrne, Swans, and Nirvana, she has become a cult name in indie scenes.
Since her debut album in 2007, St. Vincent has cultivated a sound that is both commercial and unique. Love This Giant, her collaborative album with Byrne, is a quirky collection of pop goodness with lyrics that contemplate humanity, optimism, space and time. Masseduction forged a futuristic pop sound around which Clark could discuss more personal themes, from love to Los Angeles. Each record furthered her distinctive sound and creative prowess.
Simultaneously catering to film and television soundtracks and a devoted cult audience, St. Vincent’s music came to contain an indescribable and cinematic weightiness. Between her intensely emotional vocals, dense soundscapes, and contemplative lyrics, her discography contains an indescribable sentiment and beauty that can be hard to come by in most generic indie.
Her music often deals with the overwhelming nature of living. ‘The Apocalypse Song’ from her debut is a cathartic track about celebrating and accepting everything that comes with life, as she declares, “Wait, I’ll be swifter than the speed of light, carbon all my body, a billion years of time”. ‘Outside of Space and Time’, the closing track from Love This Giant finds Clark and Byrne harmonising as they sing, “I know, we’ll join this cosmic saga, intergalactic matter, where we will meet tonight, spiraling out of sight, outside of space and time”.
St. Vincent has never shied away from heavier topics of existence and life, and her dense, dramatic art-pop sound is the perfect soundtrack for it. She doesn’t shy away from those topics in interviews either – speaking with The Guardian, she curated a playlist which included her funeral song pick.
Her choice is ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ by Jacques Brel, which she admits makes her “cry sort of uncontrollably, beyond all conscious thought, down to the basement of my stomach”. Over twinkling piano, the Belgian vocalist sings of love and loss, begging, “Do not leave me now”.
Despite the song’s emotional effect, St. Vincent says she thinks it would be funny to play at her funeral “because I wouldn’t be there. I’d be like: sorry! Peace!”
Her opinions on funeral songs seem particularly strong, as she denounces those who include Frank Sinatra on their playlists, stating, “When people say they want ‘My Way’ at their funeral, what a fuck-you to their friends and family: ‘I was a bastard, and I’m unrepentant.’ It’s not really the way you wanna go out, is it?”
An emotional piano ballad that wouldn’t feel out of place on her acoustic record, Masseducation, Brel’s ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ is a beautiful and fittingly emotional choice.
Listen to St. Vincent’s chosen funeral song below.
