Song of the Day - St. Vincent: "Jesus Saves, I Spend"

File today's pick under the "Late to the Party" category as I have been hearing for a couple of months about how great the debut album from St. Vincent is, yet I hadn't taken the time to give it a listen until three days ago. After several spins I can wholeheartedly agree with the lofty praise Marry Me has received lately and I now look forward to catching her play the next time she comes into town.

If you need to understand what is so great about St. Vincent (real name, Annie Clark), then listen to "Jesus Saves, I Spend." Very quickly you can tell that Clark has drawn inspiration from her previous collaborations playing in the bands for Sufjan Stevens, The Polyphonic Spree and Glen Branca. The sound is big and ambitious, with multi-layered production and a melody that compliments her beautiful voice perfectly. As she sings in an angelic falsetto, "I'd do anything to please you/come my love the stage is waiting/be the one to save my saving grace," you begin to see that St. Vincent is a bit of a dreamer. Whether it is in love or in the tone and depth of her sound, much of her music tends to have its head in the clouds.