Annie “St. Vincent” Clark has one request for Taylor Swift.
“Well, at this point in her career Taylor Swift can do pretty much anything she wants,” Clark, 42, told The Sunday Times in an interview published on Friday, November 8. “For that reason I say: more Throbbing Gristle.”
Clark cowrote the hit track “Cruel Summer,” from Swift’s 2019 album Lover. For Clark, writing tunes for others is a similar process to penning songs for herself. “Actually, I’m just trying to bring my best ideas, so it isn’t really that different,” she told the outlet.
The song off Swift’s Lover album topped the Billboard Hot 100 list in 2023, four years after its initial release. While reflecting on the success of “Cruel Summer,” Clark praised Swift, 34.
“She’s just so incredibly intelligent and so hardworking. That’s a given. I am so incredibly blown away and amazed by Taylor’s fans because they are just a force of nature,” Clark told People in April. “They took a song that was, what? Almost four records ago now, that was not a single off a record. They were like, ‘No, this song’s a hit.’ Then, by force of will, they made that song a worldwide hit.”
Months later, Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, gushed that the track is one of his all-time favorites of the Eras Tour performer. (Swift and Kelce, 35, have been dating since summer 2023.)
The tune is “one of the ones she opens with at her [Eras] show,” the NFL star said on “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast in June. “When she comes out [on stage], it’s just f—’ electric in the stadium,” Kelce said. “And she goes into an absolute banger like that. I was fired up when that happened [at] the first show I was ever at.”
Kelce has been supportive of Swift’s musical endeavors, attending several of her Eras Tour performances across the globe — including her recent show in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.
As the concert series winds down, Kelce explained during a Wednesday, November 6, episode of the “New Heights” podcast that he wanted to see Swift “one more time” before the show wrapped for good.
“I’ll tell you what, man, the American crowds, they did not disappoint,” Travis told his brother and podcast cohost, Jason Kelce. “I heard that it was a lot more rowdy this time around, knowing she was coming back to stop through America one last time before the tour was over with. I’ll tell you what, man, that thing was rocking.”