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“Jesus Saves, I Spend” – St. Vincent
(Words/music: Annie Clark, available on Marry Me, Beggar’s Banquet 2007)

For someone who appears so emotionless in her album covers, Annie Clark has a wonderful sense of humor.  Her first album Marry Me comes from an Arrested Development joke, and contains many playfully clever songs.   “Jesus Saves, I Spend” takes a nod from the title’s pun and sounds slightly off-kilter.  Clark puts the song in triple meter, making it feel like a slightly drunken waltz.  Still, Clark executes all of the elements that make the song seem a little goofy with precision.  Her backing vocals and bursts of distorted guitar seem whimsical rather than sloppy or ill-timed, and Clark’s main vocal line nimbly bounds from measure to measure over the arrangement.  Specifically, using her own voice as the persistent backing vocal line gives the song a strange, almost claustrophobic feel; it almost sounds like we’re inside her head, listening to her navigate all of the different thoughts shooting in and out each second.  This speaks highly of Clark’s ability as an arranger – even with all of these different ideas competing in her song, she adeptly pulls everything together.  The final product might sound a little strange, but it’s clearly odd by design, as Clark sounds consistently in command, making these disjointed parts sound like a cohesive whole.

Clark released her second album Actor this week and after a couple listens I’m struck by her musicianship even more than I was on Marry Me.  I saw her perform live last fall and was blown away by her technical prowess, and Actor drives that aspect home.  Her songs shift moods at an even quicker pace, often in the middle of a song, as the opening track (and probably More Songs Considered candidate) “The Strangers” shifts about two thirds into it.  If “Jesus Saves, I Spend” drives home her skills as an arranger, Actor represents a more mature songwriter willing to maximize her musical talents.