Jesca Hoop: Memories Are Now (SubPop)

 |   |  1 min read

Animal Kingdom Chaotic
Jesca Hoop: Memories Are Now (SubPop)

Now half a dozen albums into a career (one with Sam Beam aka Iron and Wine) this transplanted American -- who lived in Manchester for a while then returned to the US  -- is almost emblematic of the world we live in, where musical information from diverse sources (plus static, the surface noise of life etc) can all collide equally in our subconscious.

Hoop's gift is in her ability filter out many threads and then re-weave them into something her own.

So for example the opener-title track is an amalgam of quasi-poetic speak-sing and romantic Fifties girl-pop over a shifting, loping beat and the closer The Coming is slow, quite beautiful Lou-like ballad about Jesus announcing the end of his reign and asking the Devil for a new gig.

Between these points Animal Kingdom Chaotic tickles away like a strange, childlike folk song with unsettling percussive bangs to keep you alert, Cut Connection opens like a Joy Division outtake and hikes up towards a shrill stomper, Unsaid is a desperate plea to a lover which comes with a shapeshifting melody and Pegasi is an elegant folk song (“When we're in love we're alive”) on acoustic guitar with pedal steel.

Musically she's a hard woman to pin down – she was Tom Waits' nanny so heaven knows what idiosyncratic sounds she was exposed too – but lyrically many of these literate songs – religious and cosmic imagery abounds – songs express her individuality, the desire to explore and the enduring aspects of love.

Rather different and very special.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Pictish Trail: Thumb World (Fire/digital)

Pictish Trail: Thumb World (Fire/digital)

British psychedelic music has always been a very different animal to that of America's (and let's not get into the Italians at this point!). Often grounded in weird folk, classical music,... > Read more

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

1964: EYES OF THE STORM by PAUL McCARTNEY

1964: EYES OF THE STORM by PAUL McCARTNEY

When the Beatles flew to balmy Miami from wintry Washington DC in February 1964 they were taking a week-long and well-deserved break. If 1963 had been a year of incremental fame in Britain,... > Read more

Djelimady Tounkara: Solon Kono (Harmonia Mundi)

Djelimady Tounkara: Solon Kono (Harmonia Mundi)

Guitarist Tounkara sometimes spins off notes like an avant-garde guitarist (he is admired by New York's Bill Frisell who has performed with him) but for this album he gets back onto acoustic guitar... > Read more