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St. Vincent “…At the Holiday Party”

Jack Antonoff plays the drums on “…At the Holiday Party” with a gentle hesitation, as though he’s trying to give the song a support structure while tiptoeing around Annie Clark’s guitar and vocal performance. It adds a lot to the loose, easygoing feel of the song while also mirroring the lyrical conceit in which Clark sings about talking to someone at a party and noticing that beneath their facade of material success they are entirely miserable. The song is so focused on Clark observing and empathizing with this other person that it doesn’t get into her own feelings but I think the arrangement does a lot to fill that in, starting with Antonoff’s percussion conveying some caution and the eventual presence of horns, backing vocals, tambourine, and clavinet projecting love and generosity.

Clark has compared this song to The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and that’s very apt – it’s hardly a clone, but it’s a very similar set of tools and tricks used to get across a reassuring message for someone who’s looking to get out of a hopeless feeling. Jagger and Clark aren’t the type to provide false hope, and unlike the Stones song “Holiday Party” isn’t even offering advice. Clark is just offering some solidarity in letting someone feel seen, understood, and most of all, not judged in a moment of despair.

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