St. Vincent Teases New Single “Pay Your Way In Pain” With Retro Trailer, Hotline
St. Vincent is getting ready to release the new album Daddy’s Home this spring, and she’s rolling it out through the time-tested medium of viral shenanigans. Last week, St. Vincent announced the album with retro ’70s-style poster advertisements. In the first edition of weekly newsletter The New Cue, Annie Clark discussed the new LP, describing it as “the sound of being down and out Downtown in New York, 1973. Glamour that hasn’t slept for three days.” St. Vincent still hasn’t shared any of the songs from the album, but today, she’s using a trailer and a hotline to give us a few seconds of first single “Pay Your Way In Pain.”
Clark has already announced that she recorded “Pay Your Way In Pain” with her Masseduction collaborator Jack Antonoff. Last night, Clark posted a minute-long trailer that looks a whole lot like a ’70s thriller: Clark, with blonde hair and a trench coat, follows the sound of a ringing phone through an old apartment building. When she finds the phone, she answers, and a deep male voice on the other end says, “Hello, Annie.”
At the end of the video, we hear a few seconds of new music, which is presumably our preview of “Pay Your Way In Pain.” It sounds funky, and there’s a prominent electric sitar riff in there. (Clark has mentioned Stevie Wonder and Sly And The Family Stone as inspirations.) The trailer also ends in this message: “CALL NOW! 1-833-77-DADDY.”
If you call that number, you’ll hear a short recorded message that sounds like the narrated trailer of a ’70s exploitation film: “She’s back, in a new role like you’ve never seen her before. Featuring the new single ‘Pay Your Way In Pain.” Nobody expected it, nobody believed it, and nobody could stop it.” You can also hear a couple more seconds of music, though it comes through heavily distorted. But rumor has it that the single is out Friday, so we won’t have to wait long.