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Joan Wasser |
Camden music | grooves | Joan as Policewoman review | Scala
PREVIEW JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN
Scala
SHE comes across all punky: punky scrunchy hair, punky puffy make-up and a few punky grumpy frowns – but Joan Wasser has a velvet touch which suggests she has listened to more soulful Nina Simone and Dusty Springfield records than anything else.
The delicacy of The Ride made it one of the best chill-out singles of 2006, even if it didn’t pierce the public consciousness with any great weight.
However “poifect” that tune might have been for a lazy sunset fantasy, it’s not the kind of music that ever gets played on Radio One at a decent hour.
That’s a shame, because most who give her Joan As Policewoman efforts a try are soon converts and those in the know are likely to make her visit to Scala next month a sell-out.
In her late 30s, she’s not a spring chicken in popworld terms. And when people see a woman pulling up a seat behind a piano, there is often a panic. That’s understandable.
But this isn’t Sheryl Crow or Norah Jones. Not unless you force fed Norah Jones nothing but sherbet fountains without the liquorice stick for a month, would she ever get close to sounding as edgy as this.
Instead, Wasser, who was dating Jeff Buckley when he tragically drowned in Memphis in 1997, fuses a lifetime of unpredictable collaborations (Scissor Sisters, Lou Reed, Antony and the Johnsons have all been round to hers for tea) into something she can more or less call her own.
Those playing the sound-a-like game might compare Wasser to Feist, Sia or Morcheeba when they made records that people bought.
She did herself a disservice when she floated off into a world of her own recently to describe her sound, offering the mumbo jumbo: “I am always trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience.
“I want to access the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes sense musically.”
OK, luv. More significant is what she does in her live acts, attacking those keys with a hint of Nina’s razzmatazz and showwomanship but bundled together with the occasional, capricious throaty outburst.
There aren’t too many pushing the boundaries like this at the moment, so don’t miss your chance to catch her live in the act. Failing that, armchair fans can taste a new album, due at the start of next month.
Richard Osley
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