St. Vincent’s Space Oddities Playlist
“I’m always trying to reach through the time-space continuum and bring something from the future to the present,” says singer-guitarist Annie Clark. “These are the songs I would play if I was invited to a dinner party on the moon. I’m imagining all the artists floating a little bit.”
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1. “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” (Nina Simone, 1969)
This is such a great, funny, poignant song. She sounds like she’s on Percocet and acid or something. Once in a while I’ll get this song in my head, and I love it.
2. “In the Fog (I, II, III)” (Tim Hecker, 2011)
Tim Hecker makes music that feels like how the universe behaves. I’ve been opening my shows with his music. This would make a good soundtrack to the cosmos.
3. “Nomus Et Phusis” (Stereolab, 2000)
This song is from an EP that was the first Stereolab music I bought – probably because I had just enough money for an EP at the time. It was made around 2000, but it sounds like French space music from the Sixties.
4. “Here Come the Warm Jets” (Brian Eno, 1974)
The opening melody always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It’s like I can feel the rush of an airplane taking off overhead. It’s so beautiful and sad.
5. “Pick Up” (Solex, 1999)
Solex is a Dutch artist who makes very alien pop. She owned a record shop, and she’d take records home and make these sound collages.
6. “Afro-Harping” (Dorothy Ashby, 1968 ) This is such a vibe-y song. It’s a record to listen to with candles lit, lying on a fuzzy, cozy carpet.
7. “New Slaves” (Kanye West, 2013) This song definitely sounds like it’s from the future and the past – just the texture and the color of it, and the spaces in it.
8. “Age of Adz” (Sufjan Stevens, 2010) Such a brilliant, colorful, alive, futuristic record. When Suf wrote it, he was inspired by this outsider artist named Royal Robertson, who was obsessed with fire-and-brimstone Christianity and spaceships.
9. “Space Oddity” (David Bowie, 1969) The obvious choice. The thing about all Bowie records is that they’re melodic enough for a little kid to like them, but then they age with you. They grow in intimate complexity as time goes by.
10. “Yaylalar” (Selda, 1976) So psychedelic! It’s an old Turkish folk song that this singer made really funky.