Digital Witness
| "Digital Witness" | ||||||||||||||
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Digital release artwork
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| Single by St. Vincent | ||||||||||||||
| from the album St. Vincent | ||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Del Rio" (7") "Birth in Reverse" (Triangular 7") |
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| Released | January 6, 2014 | |||||||||||||
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| Recorded | 2014 | |||||||||||||
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| Length | 3:22 | |||||||||||||
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| Writer(s) | Annie Clark | |||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | John Congleton | |||||||||||||
| St. Vincent singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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"Digital Witness" is the second single from St. Vincent, the self-titled fourth album by the American art rock musician St. Vincent. It was released with another single, "Birth in Reverse", on a gold vinyl triangle packaged with the album.
The song, whose lyrics deal with dependence on social media, and its music video have received positive attention from critics. Darkside produced a remix soon after the song's release.
"Digital Witness" was released as an advance single from St. Vincent on 6 January 2014. The music video premiered on 31 January 2014. Prior to its release, the single was available to pre-order on a die-cut vinyl triangle with "Birth in Reverse" as its B-side. The record was a limited edition of 1,000 copies, packaged with CD and LP copies of St. Vincent.
Annie Clark has said that the song "encapsulates this idea where we've become very dependent on other people [...] a million digital eyes, validating our experience". The lyrics are a clear commentary on social media, including Clark's own experience on websites such as Twitter, which self-deprecatingly she describes as "pathetic". In an existential sense, the lyrics question how people evaluate what is and is not important in the digital age.
Writing for Pitchfork, Katherine St. Asaph compared "Digital Witness" to "I Should Watch TV", a track from Love This Giant, Clark's 2013 collaboration with David Byrne; she concluded that Clark likely took a cue from Byrne in composing "Digital Witness". St. Asaph noted similarities between the funky rhythms and brass instruments in both tracks, as well as their shared lyrical themes. She calls "Digital Witness" "celebratory as it's cautionary", like "I Should Watch TV", which she describes as "half-embracing" and "half-disdaining" popular television culture. Reviewer Heather Phares expressed a similar sentiment, calling "Digital Witness" a song with "close kinship" to Love This Giant.
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