Starting with St. Vincent's self-titled 2014 album, Annie Clark's artistic progression could be best described as a sharpening: Her sounds grew crisper and more angular, her lyrics ever more pointed. This approach peaked on MASSEDUCTION, which reflected a white-knuckle grip on image and identity in its high-definition pop. Control, or lack of it, is also a vital element on Daddy's Home. Using her father's return from jail for white-collar crime as a jumping-off point, Clark explores moral grey areas on songs that are as diffuse as her past few albums were taut. Her musical world-building remains as impressive as ever: Drawing on early-'70s sounds introduced to her by her father, she pays homage to a more permissive time as she traces the best and worst things carried through the generations. Clark's version of the '70s is filled with so many allusions it should have footnotes; alongside the bubbling Wurlitzers and Mellotrons, she name-drops John Cassavetes and Candy Darling. While the swaggering single "Pay Your Way in Pain" pays homage to David Bowie's "Fame" and "Live in the Dream" is a swirling tribute to Pink Floyd, not all the references are cooler than cool. On "My Baby Wants a Baby," which finds the song's protagonist admitting they want creative accomplishment more than a child, Clark borrows the melody from Sheena Easton's "9 to 5 (Morning Train)" (another song about the obligations of relationships) and a spangly sitar-mimicking guitar last heard on a B.J. Thomas single.

1		Pay Your Way in Pain
2		Down and Out Downtown
3		Daddy's Home
4		Live in the Dream
5		The Melting of the Sun
6		Humming [Interlude 1]
7		The Laughing Man
8		Down
9		Humming [Interlude 2]
10		Somebody Like Me
11		My Baby Wants A Baby
12		At the Holiday Party
13		Candy Darling
14		Humming [Interlude 3]