"THERE are no saints in the animal kingdom,” says Billy Bob Thornton’s sociopathic hitman Malvo in the Coen brothers’ hit TV series Fargo, “just breakfast and dinner.”

If that quip had viewers pausing for breath, as will Siobhan Wilson’s recently released album on Edinburgh’s Song, By Toad label. If, like the Coens, you’re willing to take on weighty, universal questions like faith, ethics and religion, you’d better have the creative talent to match.

Elgin-born musician and singer Siobhan Wilson does: There Are No Saints, her second album, is a captivating, highly intelligent and searingly human album. Just days ago, no less than Rolling Stone magazine described it as “one of the most stunning collections of songs to be released in a long time”.

It’s not that it demands your attention – there’s no showboating ostentation on this elegant record – it’s more that you recognise Wilson within seconds as the real deal. Matthew Young, Song, By Toad’s head did – he knew he wanted to release the record just a minute or two into its angelic, haunting title track.

“Most of these songs were written at the end of last year but I’ve been writing for many years,” says Wilson, currently in Edinburgh to visit her label. Now based in Glasgow, where she studies contemporary classical composition at the Royal Conservatoire, Wilson spent five years in France where she released her debut collection, Songs. Her time there drives There Are No Saints, which includes a stunning take on French standard J’attendrai and Paris Est Blanche, a song written by ex-boyfriend Simon Campocasso aka acclaimed musician Le Noiseur.

“We shared a flat together when I lived in Paris and though we didn’t collaborate much when we were in a relationship, we had always talked about it,” she says. “So this is something of a ‘hi!’ to him. He sent me a message yesterday to tell me he loves it, which is nice.”

Wilson moved to France at 18, having spent two years studying cello, piano and guitar in Edinburgh after winning a scholarship. Except the occasional input from producer Chris McCrory from Glasgow indie band Catholic Action, Wilson is responsible for all the record’s instrumentation.

“I was quite independent at 18, I guess,” she says of the gap year that became five. “When I got to France people were like: ‘So you’ve come here on your own?’ But everything was so exciting that nothing felt scary. I know it’s super middle class, this: ‘Go for a gap year to France’ thing. But I didn’t think of it like that, it was this great adventure.”

Furthering her interest in the French chanson tradition and performing at open mic nights, it was Paris where Wilson developed her songwriting skills. Her love for music and seemingly effortless vocal style goes further back – to her childhood in Moray. Before she had reached double-figures Wilson was taught piano and singing by a relative who had studied the work of Zoltan Kodaly, the Hungarian music theorist who offered a child-centred and experiential approach to learning music.

“She was my granny’s cousin and a huge influence on my life,” she says. “She taught me so much and I never took it for granted. And she was fun. I loved it all so much it never seemed like hard work.”

Despite its weighty themes of loss, acceptance and depression, There Are No Saints is no slog either. Even on a track such as her “angry prayer” Dear God there’s humour, and producer McGrory’s lightness of touch keeps the record buoyant and airy. They met while Wilson was recording backing vocals for another artist he was producing.

“He has a nice way with him, he’s a real gentle soul,” she says. “He’s relaxed and a positive force, which I think is quite important, especially as my songs are quite dark. It was nice to have someone motivated and energetic, it lightened things up.

“And I’m glad the humour has come through as I’ve just tried to be as honest as I can. Or maybe it’s a case of the older I get, the braver I get. I’m less concerned about what people think when they hear me. I think honesty and vulnerability is emotionally moving, and for me that’s really important in art.”

There Are No Saints is out now via Song, By Toad.

Siobhan Wilson plays Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on September 24.

www.siobhan-wilson.com