Last week, St. Vincent premiered video for “Cruel,” the second single from her upcoming album, Strange Mercy, in which she played an overwhelmed housewife who gets buried alive by her overbearing family. This week, she took the track—along with the dark motif from the video—to Letterman for a live performance on Tuesday.
Clark’s stoicism from the “Cruel” video carried over to her live performance as well, with the singer only flashing her trademark smile toward the bridge-end of the performance.
Interestingly, this live version of the song jangles along with Clark furiously plucking out the main theme of the song on a piercingly distorted, yet distant-sounding guitar. Even Dave can only say “Mhmm, there you go.”
4AD will drop Strange Mercy September 13.
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