‘Marry Me’ protrays a timeless sentiment
October 15, 2007
The title track of St. Vincent’s (nee Annie Clark’s) debut album from this year is both utterly sweet and utterly twisted.
It starts with Clark’s pleading voice, singing “Marry me John / I’ll be so good to you,” and it’s hard not to fall for it.
Then, she follows that up with a strange turn: “You won’t realize I’m gone.”
The verses further illustrate that she’s “as fickle as a paper doll / being kicked by the wind / when it comes down again / [she’ll] be in somebody else’s arms.”
Essentially, she’s telling John they should get married or else she’ll just start cheating.
But the greatness of this song is that it doesn’t sound nearly as warped as the lyrics would suggest. In actually sounds quite romantic.
It’s the timeless sentiment that’s been sung about forever.
But it’s all a rouse. No matter how pleasant the melody is, there’s just no way to ignore the song’s best line, “We’ll do what Mary and Joseph did without the kid.”
“Marry Me” can be found on St. Vincent’s debut album of the same name on Beggars Banquet Records.