Joan as Police Woman "The Deep Field"

 

Caught wind of this girl a few years ago but never found my way into a listen.  Saw this released in January and decided to give it a try in my latest batch of purchased tunes (nine albums, so please be patient with me, I'll get to them eventually).  Well, I really liked the way the record started.  The first two tracks were excellent.  Here is one of them.  The next three tracks were OK, with plenty of things to like but not enough to compare with the openers.  After that, however, was half a record of boring. 

Immediate comparisons were to Imogene Heap, that cerebral headphone studio art that is impressive sober, but benefits greatly from a dimly lit room and a buzz on.  Maybe that's what I was missing from "The Deep Field", the necessary altered state.  Since that's not an option much anymore, I guess I just didn't get it.  The album is fairly lengthy, so after the great start it gets to the "hurry up and finish" stage.  I actually kept a couple of additional tracks with the two openers, recognizing the chance that they will be better in a one-track style and not as a whole album.  Don't get me wrong, this is my type of record with the eclectic perfectionism I've come to enjoy over the years.  Plenty of Hammond B-3 and Wurlitzer organs, strings, horns, and even an autoharp to go along with the standard rock band instrumentation.  I think it's the foundation of it all that throws me, a unique interpretation of classic, old-school R&B. 

While conducting a little research on Ms. Wasser, I found that I already had her in my collection with the band the Dambuilders, a 90's band from New England that featured Joan's impressive violin work.  Actually, that instrument has been her moneymaker over the years as a session hire, for example, lending her talents last year to the recordings of the Scissor Sisters, Lloyd Cole, and David Sylvian.  Not bad, huh?  Her other claim of notoriety was her relationship to Jeff Buckley at the time of his demise in Memphis nearly fourteen years ago.  It doesn't appear that she's over him yet.