Joan Wasser has long maintained a curious position, her tendencies towards the avant-garde always denying her a more mainstream love. The emotional content has never been easy either. The death of her partner, Jeff Buckley, is a constant thread to the Joan as Police Woman aesthetic. Emerging from her work on Antony & The Johnsons’ I Am a Bird Now, she arrived with her 2006 debut Real Life. But it was 2008’s To Survive, a record that almost seemed to slip by unnoticed, that made for truly compelling listening. The manipulation of her classical training to a stunning display of taut craftsmanship found fragile revelation in To Be Lonely, the album’s emotional core. But her 2011 return with The Deep Field, her ‘most open, joyous record’, is a frustrating proposition.
David Sylvian and Rufus Wainwright, who both marked her previous musical outing, are nowhere to be seen. And an unfettered Joan Wasser has found a new sound that is hard to appreciate. While the record’s name evokes distant reflection, she now employs a directly confrontational palette that seems to borrow off Laura Veirs’ sound world. It’s right there in the opener Nervous as field recordings weave through chiming and a drifting beat before Wasser hurls ‘I want you to fall in love with me’ through frenzied textures. Overambitious ensemble carries through to The Magic and ends up sounding rather flat. But for the parts of The Deep Field that soulfully wander into muzak, a balance is found in the orchestrated climaxing of ‘The Action Man’ or the pure night music of ‘Forever And a Year’. And the record finds an almost cathartic moment in ‘Flash’, 8 minutes of romantic soundscaping and snatches of the softly spoken. A patchwork of found sound washes through the album in a beautiful backdrop.
The Deep Field sees Joan as Police Woman taking uncertain steps away from the emotional loss that informed previous musical explorations. Repeated listening reveals a more challenging sound that will surely find firmer ground in the future. And the fact that artists as far removed as the Unthank sisters constantly name-check her tells you just how pervasive Wasser’s influence is. For all its flaws, The Deep Field is necessary listening. In the week that also saw Adele’s latest sterile offering, you could do a lot worse.
