JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN レコード& CD

Review: It's a bit of a landmark period for Joan Wasser - this album arrives ahead of her 50th birthday, her last studio album was the exceptional 'Damned Devotion' and last year we also got the self explanatorily-titled 'Joanthology'. Now she gives us 'Cover Two', her second album of covers - a particularly problematic undertaking for any artist, but one she has long-since proven adept at. As ever the choices are personal and therefore make for a random playlist - opening with a heartbreaking, lunging acoustic version of Prince's 'Kiss', and featuring The Strokes' 'Under Control' re-read as classy, sultry R&B. Talk Talk's timeless 'Life's What You Make Of It' becomes a surreal piece of sophisticated avant-pop, 'Out of Time' by Blur is turned into a breathy, enigmatic piano solo. Taking on some big pieces and coming out on top, we expected no less.

Review: It's a bit of a landmark period for Joan Wasser - this album arrives ahead of her 50th birthday, her last studio album was the exceptional 'Damned Devotion' and last year we also got the self explanatorily-titled 'Joanthology'. Now she gives us 'Cover Two', her second album of covers - a particularly problematic undertaking for any artist, but one she has long-since proven adept at. As ever the choices are personal and therefore make for a random playlist - opening with a heartbreaking, lunging acoustic version of Prince's 'Kiss', and featuring The Strokes' 'Under Control' re-read as classy, sultry R&B. Talk Talk's timeless 'Life's What You Make Of It' becomes a surreal piece of sophisticated avant-pop, 'Out of Time' by Blur is turned into a breathy, enigmatic piano solo. Taking on some big pieces and coming out on top, we expected no less.

Review: On her sixth album as Joan As Police Woman, Joan Wasser dives into deeper and darker waters than on her previous work. 'Damned Devotion' draws the listener in close with Wasser's heartfelt sentiments of romantic honesty and intimacy to powerful effect, vocally balancing frailty and strength on a knife-edge in a way that continues to assert her strength as a vocalist and performer. Her ambient melting pot of R'n'B, beats, dimly lit atmospherics, soulful harmonies, eerie samples and crunching riffs strikes perfect balances at every turn, showing a depth of songwriting full of a tension that feels calmly restrained at one moment and threateningly coiled in the next. It's these levels of tension and atmosphere coupled with Wasser's instrumental and vocal breadth that make 'Damned Devotion' a real gem, an album whose many virtues become ever more apparent with every listen.

Review: On her sixth album as Joan As Police Woman, Joan Wasser dives into deeper and darker waters than on her previous work. 'Damned Devotion' draws the listener in close with Wasser's heartfelt sentiments of romantic honesty and intimacy to powerful effect, vocally balancing frailty and strength on a knife-edge in a way that continues to assert her strength as a vocalist and performer. Her ambient melting pot of R'n'B, beats, dimly lit atmospherics, soulful harmonies, eerie samples and crunching riffs strikes perfect balances at every turn, showing a depth of songwriting full of a tension that feels calmly restrained at one moment and threateningly coiled in the next. It's these levels of tension and atmosphere coupled with Wasser's instrumental and vocal breadth that make 'Damned Devotion' a real gem, an album whose many virtues become ever more apparent with every listen.