Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) is having her limelight moment. Since the New Yorker’s 2012 collaboration with David Byrne on Love This Giant, she has emerged as an edgy, art-rock goddess. Nowhere is this more evident than on her fourth solo studio album, St. Vincent, which dropped today.

The first single, “Birth in Reverse,” hits with the spastic electric guitar riffs, crackling distortion, thumping drums, and feisty vocals that we’ve come to expect from her—a bold proclamation that the singer-songwriter has no intention of taming her sound despite having recently signed to major label, Loma Vista/Republic Records.

To achieve the “paramount groove” she was looking for, Clark teamed up with Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss and Midlake percussionist McKenzie Smith. The result is a “totally original sound” (according to Smithsonian magazine, which awarded Clark an American Ingenuity Award in December 2013). The album’s impetus was similarly rare: Clark says, “I wanted to make a party record you could play at a funeral.”

See St. Vincent March 22 at The Fox (Oakland), Get tickets here. 

This article was published in 7x7's March issue. Click here to subscribe.