release date Mar. 10, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: Tyler Wood & Joan Wasser
label: Play It Again Sam - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Witness" - 2. "Holy City" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Classic" (4 / 5) - 4. "Good Together" (live in Paris) - 5. "Get Direct" - 7. "New Year's Day" (3 / 5) - 10. "Ask Me"
4th studio album by Joan As Police Woman, or Joan Wasser, which is her given name. The album follows The Deep Field (2011) and is released on Play It Again Sam and produced by Wasser and Tyler Wood, who also played keyboards on the 2011 album.
Initially, I found it a bit of a difficult task to rate this album. On one hand it's very much in family with the music by St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), in the sense that it's both art pop and singer / songwriter (not noise pop like Clark), but it's also Joan's perhaps boldest chamber pop and soul-oriented album so far, although, not just soul and not really folk-based singer / songwriter. I think, what I'm hinting at is that it has so many stylistic references (even neo-psychedelia and doo-wop elements) that it's really a huge melting pot of styles and genres, which ain't necessarily bad, but it does make the album a bit uneven, yet, also interesting. Especially the bolder soul-shaped tracks are great but then again: I also really enjoy "Good Together", which is more art pop cloned neo-soul. I think it's really good, refreshing, and quite original, and it's probably quite popular as National Public Radio music.
May 4, 2014: By now, I have listened to the album enough times to hand it another star to my initial 3 star verdict, and I think it even betters her so far best release The Deep Field (2011). For me, this is clearly one of this year's most interesting releases.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
