JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN
Issue #32
Real Life
By Sheba White
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
Singer-songwriter Joan Wasser of Joan As Police Woman is a phoenix by all accords. A classically trained pianist and violinist, the ex-Dambuilder has been in too many short-lived, underappreciated, and critically acclaimed bands to count, but always on the periphery and just short of the fiery divinity status she’s due.
Nevertheless, Wasser’s building an impressive résumé, finding work both in and out of the studio, backing everyone from Rufus Wainwright to Tanya Donnelly to Lou Reed. She’s also getting nods from fans for her aggressive performances, no-nonsense songwriting, and good sense to ignore indie snobbery with a quota-expanding dose of soul not seen since the likes of the Afghan Whigs.
On Real Life, the band’s first full-length, Wasser is joined by jazz percussionist Ben Perowsky and lo-fi bassist Rainy Orteca — both alums of similar session backgrounds. But Real Life is essentially Wasser’s vehicle throughout: an ode to lost, leaving, and left loves, and anthemic in its restrained melancholia.
The opening title track begins on unwieldy circus-piano legs, with scale-simple notes backing up Wasser’s smooth timber and grandiose lyrical aims plucking away at the surface. “I need you to know / I need you to know / That I’m real life,” Wasser sings, and finishes right on the dramatic endnote straight outta Tori Amos or Kate Bush.
But just when it appears that we’re in for a full-on piano-driven AmBush, Wasser pulls out different cards altogether, with unpretentious Al Green–brassy rhythms (“I Defy”) woven in between nods to slow-tempo reggae beats (“Flushed Chest”), and stunningly catchy X-inspired string arrangements á la “The Have Nots” (“Christobel”).
If anything, Real Life showcases Wasser’s songwriting skills and overall musical adaptability, a trait that in lesser singer-songwriter-musicians might come across as fickleness, but in Wasser appears to be a well-honed flexibility after years of experience supporting other notable singer-songwriters. After all, some kind of nimbleness has to be gained from those smaller-band deaths, and a phoenix does not come back as the exact same bird.
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