Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

St. Vincent's "St. Vincent" Album Review

Throughout, Clark displays that rarest of guitar gifts: The ability to make you stop in your tracks every 30 seconds and mutter, “What the eff was that?”

Album

St. Vincent
St. Vincent
Loma Vista/Republic

It’s not like we need more evidence that Annie “St. Vincent” Clark is a stunningly imaginative art-rock guitarist, but here it is. We’re talking sludge-fuzz blasts … fancy-ass Steve Howe runs … violent stop-and-start phrasing … and that’s just on “Birth in Reverse,” the lead single from St. Vincent’s fourth studio album.

Clark seems to have a honey badger’s regard for classic rock tones. Hers are harsh, even grotesque. They blat with flat, full-frequency distortion likely to fry the pacemakers of vintage tone snobs. With her overstated digital effects and flatulent synth filters, Clark can sound downright disgusting. Yes—she’s that good.

But you can’t view Clark’s guitars in isolation—they’re counterpoint to her idiosyncratic vocalizing, scuzzy synths, and sly songwriting/programming. Singing or playing, she boasts a wonderfully eccentric sense of rhythm, one that veers from smoove groove to dying insect. She never quite goes full Ribot on guitar, but she’s certainly got Marc’s knack for slashing across the grain of the groove. Throughout, Clark displays that rarest of guitar gifts: The ability to make you stop in your tracks every 30 seconds and mutter, “What the eff was that?”

Must-hear track: “Birth in Reverse”

For Pink Floyd fans, the visuals give away that this is David Gilmour along with his longtime bassist Guy Pratt and drummer Adam Betts, who appear on Gilmour’s new Luck and Strange, navigating the band’s classic “Time.”

Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE

The incendiary giant of psychedelic guitar concludes his 21-date world tour this weekend in New York City. In this photo essay, PG’s editorial director reports on the opening date of the sonic architect of Pink Floyd’s historic five-concert run at MSG.

NEW YORK CITY–There’s a low, sustained tone that David Gilmour extracts from his Stratocaster at the beginning of Pink Floyd’s “Sorrow.” It’s the intimidating growl of a robotic tiger­–or, more realistically, a blend of low-string sustain, snarling overdrive from a Big Muff, and delay that saturates the air and seems to expand into every bit of open space. It’s almost overpowering in its intensity, but it is also deeply beautiful.

Read MoreShow less

D'Addario's new Bridge Pin Puller and Tour-Grade Peg Winder are designed to make string changes a breeze.

Read MoreShow less

Friends and guitar legends in the making Tom Bukovac (left) and Guthrie Trapp map out some recording strategy for In Stereo, with an acoustic guitar and air drums.

Nashville session and stage MVPs craft an aural wonderland with their genre-defying instrumental album, In Stereo.

Working from a shared language of elegance and grit, Nashville guitar domos Tom Bukovac and Guthrie Trapp have crafted In Stereo, an album that celebrates the transcendent power of instrumental music—its ability to transport listeners and to convey complex emotions without words.

Read MoreShow less

Orianthi is partnering with Orange Amplification to release a travel-friendly amp designed to be both functional and reliable.

Read MoreShow less