In her latest music video -- for the song "Cruel" off her upcoming Strange Mercy release, due out on September 13 -- the Dallas-bred St. Vincent gets tortured, kidnapped, bound to a chair and, eventually, buried alive. It's all set to a nice little indie pop gem produced and recorded right here in town by John Congleton, which blends orchestral instrumentation and the performer born Annie Clark's well-expected-at-this-point axe-playing heroics.
It's a great video for sure, with as Clark, playing a suburban, Stepford-esque housewife, is derided by her family for failing to perform mundane tasks up to their expectations. Coupled with the music, it makes for a nice juxtaposition -- par for course, naturally, for St. Vincent, who's long been known for pairing dark themes with pretty sounds.
This time, around, though, portraying as much took some serious wherewithal on Clark's part. Yesterday, she explained to the Huffington Post what it was like to be buried alive:
"Set design did a brilliant job building a 'grave.' This consisted of three 20-foot tall flats covered in cow manure, ammonia, dirt, sand, tree limbs, which I was lowered into via forklift. I think I still have some of this grave dirt in my shoes."Word. See it all go down in the video, posted for your viewing pleasure after the jump. Oh, and be sure to catch Clark live when she performs here in her hometown at the Kessler Theater on Sunday, October 23.
