CD of The Week

The David Byrne & St. Vincent collaboration Love This Giant is a project born out of a suggestion from Housing Works, a NYC AIDS/homeless non-profit after Dirty Projectors and Björk released a similarly-inspired project. The Housing Works bookstore is quite small, and without a PA system, so Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) recommended the control of their collaboration be a brass band. Three years later: we have an album.

"Who," the first single from Love This Giant, features bombastic horns matching Byrne's vocals, gritty guitar + horn accompaniment, and Clark singing "Who is an honest man?" This was the perfect introduction while waiting another excruciating two months to hear the full album. All of the questions throughout the song barely addressed my confusion and awe towards this hearty project.

"Weekend In The Dust" is the second track and the first to settle into the melting pot of this collaboration. The way both Byrne & Clark twist and shift the horn players and the arrangements is magnificent. "A Forest Awakes" has its Byrnesian murkiness but the proper sterility of St. Vincent's early work. There's expansion to something near robotic and very controlled. It's one of the few songs that, towards the end, gives center stage to Clark's guitar playing. "I Should Watch TV" lyrically sounds like it could've been on a Talking Heads record, speaking about television and pop culture's eternal grip on our society. There's an industrialness that this record keeps going back to. It's swampy and funky and it parts with the serenity of Annie's voice, on "Lazarus," one of the best songs on the album, and it showcases both artists equally.

"Outside of Space & Time" is the coda on our journey; it's large and somber and poignant. Byrne & Clark showcase the horns without letting them drown out their own signature sounds, but rather accentuating them. On my first few listens, the history of David Byrne's career shined through, hell, it screamed at me. Byrne's sound is so distinct and Talking Heads have such a presence in popular music, so it was on the dozenth or so listen that I really started hearing the nuances of St. Vincent. Her rhythms and distinct guitar ride shotgun with the brass band, as does the dynamic emotional range of Clark's vocal style. Byrne and Clark made this giant record that is giant in its sound, both reserved and bombastic; giant in the sense that a great living legend who continues to be relevant created this brilliant record with one of the most creative guitarists, and overall artists, of recent years. Oh oh, I love this giant. Hear it live at The Tower Theaterthis Thursday night.