In her previous videos directed by Terri Timely - Actor Out Of Work and Marrow - Annie Clark aka St Vincent has cultivated a very distinctive persona as somewhat dispassionate observer of strange people and events around her.

Now with Cruel, the first single from the forthcoming new 4AD album Strange Mercy, she's very much the powerless (or resigned) Stepford Wife-like victim of the strange people and events around her - her own 'family', who abduct and abuse her, husband and children alike - and then bury her.

A disturbing yet blackly humourous scenario indeed, shot in northern California with customary panache by the Timelys - that's Corey Creasey and Ian Kibbey, Oakland's finest, now signed to Park Pictures for commercials in the US and UK, but unattached in terms of music videos.

It's also a fair reflection of St Vincent's new musical direction, where something sweetly melodic is always clashing with something quite a lot darker.

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Itt0rALeHE8&ob=av2e