Jesca Hoop: Hunting My Dress
Jesca Hoop: Hunting My Dress
Thursday, 26, Nov 2009 02:30
Last Laugh, out November 30th.
What's it all about?
The second album released by Jesca Hoop, it's got a very smooth soundscape, overcast by slightly dark clouds of instrumental details and melodies. The opening track, Whispering Light, sets the bar and indicates a level of quality and a feeling that the album in its entirety finally delivers.
Who's it by?
Jesca Hoop is an American artist with a greatly musically orientated background. Growing up in a Mormon family of seven in southern California, she often sung elaborate harmonies together with her siblings of traditional folksongs, and her vocal capacity shines thru much of her work. After leaving home and traveling the American West (Arizona, Wyoming), Jesca ended up working as a nanny for Tom Waits (yes, the Tom Waits). With the musical foundation of her early years, and an increasing interest in composing, Jesca soon entered the industry of music and was greeted very positively with her first album, Kismet.
As an example...
"I will walk the road as long as the road goes/I will try to dodge the rock the valley throws/Revealer... caught a fever/we all have a sinking stone." -Whispering Light
What the others say
"Ironically, Hoop is at her best when she tones down the unusualness and plays it straight. Feast of the Heart is deliciously dark, guitars groan around Hoop's vocals and a violent shuffling rhythm gives the impression of being in a scary forest." - Muso's Guide
"Hoop's a shape-shifter, though, comfortable with blues flavours or a murder ballad (Tulips), while her melodies and nature-inspired imagery have the relentless, angular quality of Kate Bush or Björk." - Observer
So is it any good?
This album has character. And it's an impressive character too. Jesca Hoop has a voice of great potential - something she knows and also makes use of, allowing it a large and filling role throughout the whole album. As already mentioned, the album does indeed have quite a dark touch, even though this darkness sometimes is mixed up with more up-beat tracks such as Four Dreams.
Whispering Light is an excellent first track that invites the listener to this experimental, folky musical experience. And from this, Jesca allows the album to sink deeper, and turn a bit heavier, in the superb Feast of the Heart.
When discussed, Jesca often is compared with early Kate Bush and Björk, and the comparison is in no way deceitful. At the same time, though, it must be stressed that she in no way sounds too much alike any other female singer/songwriter out there today. Rather the opposite: one might see quite clearly how Jesca Hoop could make room for herself among the successful artists of tomorrow.
8/10
Rasmus Thofte