Album: Joan As Police Woman, The Deep Field (Play It Again Sam)

4.00

Reviewed by Andy Gill

Friday 21 January 2011

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The Deep Field marks a quantum leap in the career of Joan Wasser, aka Joan as Police Woman. It has everything the Adele album lacks: real emotional insight, couched in genuinely soulful arrangements bristling with imagination.

The theme is the oldest and simplest – love – but Wasser manages to present a compelling emotional arc without ever lapsing into cliche. The album's sound is rooted in the languid, electric-piano funk devised by Sly Stone for Fresh and Small Talk, creating an erotically-charged ambience that illuminates songs like "Human Condition", "Chemmie" and "The Magic" with the glimmer of truth. Her delivery is relaxed but intense, while the arrangements are constructed like abstract expressionist canvases: at their best, on something like "Flash", the result is akin to Radiohead fronted by Tricky, intimacy recalled in tranquility.

DOWNLOAD THIS Flash; The Magic; Chemmie; Run for Love

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