Jazz-influenced singer/songwriter
Spencer Day's third studio effort and debut for Concord Records, 2009's
Vagabond is a softly cinematic piece of crossover pop that positions
Day as a kind of thinking man's crooner, or at least a crooning storyteller. A piano player with a burnished baritone voice and a knack for literate moody ballads,
Day will of course draw quick and easy comparisons to other similarly inclined contemporaries like
Peter Cincotti,
Jamie Cullum, and
Norah Jones -- which, though true enough, slightly reduces
Day's own weighty album presence. Vocally,
Day has a bit of the emotional swagger of
Michael Bublé leavened with just enough downtrodden urban skew as to make one think
Day has, at the least, listened to
Tom Waits. This is especially true on such cathartic pop moments as the character song "Joe" and the lilting and soulful title track. Elsewhere,
Day evinces a kind of '60s
Elvis quality on the slippery-slick opening number, "Till You Come to Me," and brings to mind a young
Harry Connick, Jr. on the slow swinger "I Got a Mind to Tell You." However, it is such superb tunes as the yearning love song "Out of My Hands" and the would-be classic "Maybe (Tuesday Morning)" that help
Vagabond rise above the crossover fray and reach toward something more akin to the best of
Harry Nilsson and
Randy Newman. Ultimately, all of
Vagabond is immaculately produced, and a steady mix of strings, horns, and other "old-school" elements -- combined with
Day's own creative merits -- helps color the album as a kind of latter-day traditional pop love letter. ~ Matt Collar