Watch St. Vincent Rock ‘Daddy’s Home’ Songs on ‘SNL’

St. Vincent performed her two recent singles “Pay Your Way in Pain” and “The Melting of the Sun,” from her upcoming album Daddy’s Home, during her return as Saturday Night Live musical guest.

Both performances marked the first time Annie Clark had played the songs live. “Pay Your Way in Pain” featured a trio of backup singers, which Clark previously told Rolling Stone was a first for her.

“I’ve never done a record where I wasn’t singing my own backups,” Clark said. “I feel like there’s a specific meaning behind that, if you were the only one doubling your own voice or harmonizing. This record is way looser, way more about just performance.”

The latter track “The Melting of the Sun” was inspired by artists like Joni Mitchell and Marilyn Monroe, both of whom show up in the track’s lyrics. “People tried to quiet them when they were saying something that was righteous or true or hard to hear,” Clark said. “[That song] in particular is a love letter to strong, brilliant female artists. Each of them survived in an environment that was in a lot of ways hostile to them.”

St. Vincent last performed on SNL in 2014 in support of her self-titled album, playing “Digital Witness” and “Birth in Reverse” from that LP.

Daddy’s Home, the follow-up to 2018’s Masseduction, arrives May 14th.