Joan As Police Woman is a name I've heard over the past couple of years from people whose opinion I respect, so when I saw this for a quid in a charity shop, buying it was an easy choice.
I wasn't aware when I bought it, but this is Joan Wasser's debut as JAPW, and she had been in a relationship with Jeff Buckley when he died in 1997.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I've really enjoyed this album. It's a collection of gentle songs, enjoyable and accessible without being obviously commercial. The title track, Real Life, opens the album with a lovely song over a Satie-like piano accompaniment, before things move uptempo on the catchy Eternal Flame, and already stylistically, it's hard not to hear echoes of Buckley. Feed The Light and The Ride flow nicely along, then there's a lovely soulful duet with Antony Johnson on I Defy. And the lovely songs continue - Flushed Chest, slow and gentle then Christobel more upbeat, with echoes of The Cure in the accompaniment, and while we're on comparisons, I can't help but hear vocal similarities between Joan and Annette Peacock, especially on Anyone.
So, probably much more personal, gentle and introspective than I was expecting, and refreshingly so. This is an album which will repay revisiting, and I recommend it to anyone reading.
4* - a fantastic 'debut' album of lovely songs.
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