Clark joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006, bringing with her a tour EP entitled Paris Is Burning. It contains three tracks, including a cover version of Jackson Browne's These Days.
Clark released her début album, Marry Me, 10 July 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the cult-hit television show Arrested Development, the LP features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree).
In 2008 Clark was nominated for three PLUG Independent Music Awards: New Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year, and on 6 March 2008, she won the Female Artist of the Year award.
Her second album for 4AD, entitled Actor, was released on 5 May 2009. It was written entirely by Clark and produced by Clark and John Congleton of The Paper Chase.
The Strange Mercy Songfacts reports that Clark wrote her third album in Seattle. She decamped to the Northwestern city to escape from the information overload she was experiencing at home and recorded Strange Mercy in a studio provided by Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr. The album was released by 4AD on September 12, 2011 and peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200, making it her first Top 20 LP.
2) A pseudonym of singer-songwriter Vincent Bernardy, who has written and recorded music since 1980. see also St. Vincent Folk
3) A singer/songwriter from Victoria, Australia.
Your Lips Are Read
St. Vincent Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My face is red from reading your red lips
My hands are black
My hands are black inside this downtown taxi cab
This city's red
This city's red from riding us into the ground
This city's black
This city's black from all the ashes in downtown
My face is drawn
My face is drawn on with this number 2 pencil
Your face is drawn
Your face is drawn from drawing words right from my lips
Words right from my lips, words right from my lips
Your lips are red
My face is red from reading your red lips
My hands are red
My hands are red from sealing your red lips
Sealing your red lips, sealing your red lips
Your skin's so fair
Your skin's so fair, it's not fair
You remind me
of a book
With words that leap from off the page and down my throat
Words that leap from off the page and down my throat
St. Vincent's song "Your Lips Are Red" features lyrics that explore the intensity of desire and the physical and emotional effects it can have on a person. Through the use of vivid imagery and metaphors, the singer describes the sensations of being consumed by their attraction to another person. The repetition of "your lips are red" throughout the song emphasizes the importance of the other person's presence, drawing attention to their sensual and alluring qualities.
In the first verse, the singer describes their hands as black inside a downtown taxi cab, which could be a metaphor for feeling trapped or suffocated by the urban environment. The city is also described as being "red" and "black" from riding the singer and their love interest into the ground and being consumed by the ashes of downtown. This could symbolize how their passion is taking over, pushing them to the brink of destruction.
The second verse shifts to a more personal focus, as the singer describes their face and the face of their love interest being "drawn" with a pencil, possibly suggesting a sense of artificiality or the idea that their attraction is a product of their own creation. The lyrics "your skin's so fair, it's not fair" highlight the intensity of the singer's attraction and perhaps the feelings of envy that come with it.
Overall, the lyrics to "Your Lips Are Red" convey a sense of passionate, all-consuming desire and the intense physical and emotional effects it can have on a person.
Line by Line Meaning
Your lips are red
My face is red from reading your red lips
My hands are black
My hands are black inside this downtown taxi cab
This city's red
This city's red from riding us into the ground
This city's black
This city's black from all the ashes in downtown
My face is drawn
My face is drawn on with this number 2 pencil
Your face is drawn
Your face is drawn from drawing words right from my lips
Your lips are red
My face is red from reading your red lips
My hands are red
My hands are red from sealing your red lips
Your skin's so fair
You remind me of porcelain dolls without any flaws
My hands are bruised
My hands are bruised from holding onto you too tightly
Your eyes are blue
Your eyes are blue like the ocean we dive into at night
Your lips are red
My face is red from reading your red lips
My hands are black
My hands are black inside this downtown taxi cab
This city's red
This city's red from riding us into the ground
This city's black
This city's black from all the ashes in downtown
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: ANNE ERIN CLARK, DANIEL FREDERICK HART
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
âkumâ
almost 2022 and can i just say this is still very underrated
Bianca Marcellous
Love this song, so many emotions and colors spinning in my head
Darius Cornejo
This kind of feels like the opposite of "Huey Newton," no? Huey Newton starts rather soft and then has a killer guitar second half, while this one starts intense, but ends with a softer more calming music. The similarity though is that the ending has the most intense lyrics. It might not seem intense because it's not aggressively sung, but you know the meaning of this song, then maybe you would understand why it's a bit intense.
Jenny Rose
Wow that's not how I interpreted it at ALL. lol
Innocent Villain
In other words it's a murder song. The protagonist's hands are red from sealing someone else's red lips i.e. she killed somebody to keep her from telling someone something and now has blood on her hands. The victim's skin is so fair it's not fair i.e. abnormally pale from bleeding to death. The beginning is agitated because the murderer is getting amped up to commit the crime. The last part is relaxed because the crime has been completed and the killer is chilling.
woza
stfu. stop thinking. check out. check in.
Chloé-Marie K
YES!
Stephen Smith
I'm very happy with her on guitar, the violin and piano were so nice. She should colab with Eric Whitaker and get a full orchestra playing with her.
Emma Norrell
Stephen Smith YES
notawizard02
I just... GAH!!
I love this so much!
I love the intensity of the instruments and how angry Annie sounds!
And then how it goes for a softer tone at the end.
Annie is a true artist. <3