Joan As Police Woman
Real Life

THE REVIEW

Brushstrokes of aqua green, sea blue, and white like the sand. It's not that I've ever particularly loved pastel colors and their shades of gray and white, but Joan Wasser, known artistically as Joan As Police Woman, paints and sings her debut so well that it makes you want to dip your hands in it and color your face, arms, and body with its brightest tones. She tries to get you 'dirty' with her 'Real Life', playing at transforming every melody into a soap bubble. Glossy, sparkling, and languid. She immerses herself in it with authentic sincerity, and you find yourself unable to help but melt in this 'bath' of emotions.

Joan's is a story made of small steps. In love with music since she was very young, she pursued classical studies, specializing in piano and violin. While also cultivating her adolescent passions for punk, rock, and soul, she found herself playing in various indie-rock bands throughout the early '90s, closely following the man who was her boyfriend at the time: Mr. Jeff Buckley. The grief over the death of the American artist profoundly marked her evolution as a woman. Many shades of this 'Real Life' still carry his scent. He is also in here. In her voice. In her thoughts. This self-proclaimed policewoman's very first studio album arrived only in 2006 after countless collaborations with a wide variety of artists on the international scene: Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons), Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters, Dave Gahan, Sheryl Crow, Nick Cave. And when it arrives, it leaves a mark.

Authentic, honest, delicate. Almost whispered in its most intimate and profound soul, it unfolds in 10 languid, soft, and touching songs.

It starts with the title-track 'Real Life', all Joan and piano, almost a prayer for the intimacy with which it is sung, to continue with the wonderful 'Eternal Flame' that enchants heart and mind with its radiant brightness. Following is 'I Defy' in which Joan duets with the androgynous Antony Hegarty in a piece with sweet and seductive melodies, and 'Flushed Chest', incredibly catchy and captivating. The arrangements are essential and never trivial, tending towards a pop that is sophisticatedly emotional. Violin, winds, strings, and piano take the lead for a voice that doesn’t need to shout its sensations because it knows how to sing them softly, under the skin, as in the beautiful 'Save Me' and 'Anyone'. 'Real Life' and its policewoman seem to come from nowhere or, as she herself says, 'From the wind that stirs the trees in the forest.' Natural and calm forces.

Intimate and elegant, it is an album trusting in love and loss, speaking with sincerity still tinged with anger. It is an album about growing up and becoming adults, about being real and rediscovering concreteness in the face of life's disappointments and difficulties. It is an album in which we can find much in the composition and contribution from her 'masters'; Antony and Joseph Arthur, from her female idols; Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell, but also from her dearest affections; Elliott Smith, to whom 'We Don't Own It' is dedicated—a dreamy song closing the album, never falling into the repetitive or banal. A special mention goes to the intriguing 'Christobel', the only track with more marked and sustained rhythms where we can distinctly hear guitar and drums playing at sending distant calls to decidedly more rock musical pasts.

Beautiful, sulky, and seductive with a unique voice and timbre. It will take no time at all to capture you with its simple way of being. Lend it your heart; it might accelerate the beats for a love never entirely extinguished.