St Vincent’s London show was one of the most divisive gigs of the year (Report)

St Vincent returned to London for a sold-out show at The O2 Academy in Brixton. After releasing what was NME’s and many others’ album of the year with her self-titled record in 2014, she came back with the frantic follow-up of ‘MASSEDUCTION‘ last week. With critics in the palm of her hand, this show should have been a cakewalk to further universal acclaim – but it was anything but.

Opting to screen her own directorial debut with the Lynch-meets-Pinter short film ‘The Birthday Party’ in lieu of a support act, she arrived on the edge of the stage through a thin break in the curtain. Opening with ‘Marry Me’, she then played through cuts from her first four records in chronological order as the curtain slowly shifted across the stage. As the full stage came into view, the audience would learn that the skittering mechanical beats they could hear were in fact a backing track – rather than a live band.

After a brief interval and costume change from pink latex into a futuristic silver number, she re-emerged on a plinth to play through her new record in its entirety. Solo and backed only by a surreal fantasy of imagery, her performance was striking but minimal… for some, at least. Almost as loud as the backing track was the murmur of confusion from doubters asking, ‘Is that it?’ It seems that supporting yourself before playing a brand new record in full and denying the crowd a live band can be dubbed as ‘self indulgent’. Some were fully enthralled for 90 minutes, others were left feeling a little cheated.

The Independent were made up with St Vincent’s decision to go it alone, declaring that “the sheer audacity of the move” was “breathtaking”. Four stars too from…