St. Vincent live in London: a glorious re-imagination for the Proms

Picture it: Jules Buckley and his orchestra navigating the ever-increasingly eclectic discography of the Grammy-winning St. Vincent (real name Annie Clark). Pair that with the singer-songwriter herself and you’ve got one hell of an evening at the legendary Royal Albert Hall.

In this iconic setting, you can fully appreciate the poetry of Clark’s writing. Songs like ‘Black Rainbow’ and ‘Live in the Dream’ feel almost technicolour – painted with fresh new colours. Speaking to Rolling Stone UK last year, Clark shared her desire to write a Bond theme, and the orchestral version of fan favourite ‘Digital Witness’ shared here feels like the perfect candidate.

It’s thrilling to see an artist on a stage just jamming out on an electric guitar with an orchestra that Clark very clearly not only appreciates, but respects immensely. Moments where Clark is guitar-less on stage felt like a peak behind the elusive St. Vincent curtain. Performances like this are what make the BBC Proms so special – taking a contemporary artist and placing them in an environment that they wouldn’t usually be in and the excitement of the unknown that comes with that.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the evening, besides when Clark entered the crowd during the iconic ‘New York’, is a rather subdued and pared back version of ‘Los Ageless’, from her 2017 album MASSEDUCTION. It backs up what conductor, arranger and orchestrator Buckley shared about the event before the show.

He said: “The concept here is not just to slap an orchestral wallpaper behind an artist, we’ve worked together to find a new interpretation of St. Vincent’s sound.” Clark puts it best herself at the top of the show, telling the crowd of the process of re-imagining her music like this: “It’s been glorious.”