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| Track list: 1. Silverscreen 2. Summertime 3. Out the Back Door 4. Seed of Wonder 5. Enemy 6. Love Is All We Have 7. Intelligentactile101 8. Havoc in Heaven 9. Reves dans le creux 10. Money 11. Love and Love Again 12. Paradise 13. Worried Mind Running time: 56 minutes Released: 2012 |
I don't recall what got me into Jesca Hoop. I mean, I remember that it was Undress, but not the whys of picking up that album. I loved it though, and still do, although to be fair my epiphany wasn't that long ago... maybe 2 years tops? It wasn't until late last year I got around to ordering more older material though, including this one; I haven't received the physical disc yet - sourcing is apparently an issue - but the digital auto-rip will do! It is a first listen for me too... digital buys not usually getting dedicated play when they are grabbed.
The opening guitar is not quite what I was expecting... a touch classical. The vocal reminds me of Lisa Hannigan, and someone else I cannot immediately place, in its tone, breathy and close. When the chorus hits, it is more reminiscent of the Jesca Hoop tunes that first engaged me, and overall its a gentle start, but Silverscreen feels like it goes on too long at least twice; it fakes an end then finds a continuation.
I am hoping this listen will put an end to my listlessness. The past few evenings, and all day today (it's Saturday) I have done nothing of note, not feeling like I want to do anything. Brain won't countenance thinky things, body (and the woeful winter weather) not supporting ideas of doing anything more active. I pine for what Hoop is singing about now... summer; I would take spring. I dislike the dark, I care not for the cold.
So far there hasn't been any of the really cool use of rhythm that sold Undress to me utterly. Instead these seem more traditional songs, less creative, less sure. The guitar has a nice snap to it, and there is a lively beat to Out the Back Door, but it feels... young? Uncertain, following more than leading... this tune is a step up from the first two though in terms of more than a passing interest. Hoop's voice here is light, also reinforcing the feeling of youth - though I'm pretty sure she was not that young when this was recorded.
I start to hear some themes and tells that tie this to the other material I am familiar with. Nice use of lyrics outside of traditional line structures, for instance, was one of the features that made me fall in thrall of Hoop's songs, and her vocal style really supports this approach, apparent sharp short breaths punctuating long stretches with constant vocal, hold-overs with long notes as the tune catches up. I like the way it draws my ear in, I like the way it stands out, and the sense of falling forward, onward ever after.
I have had an odd start to the year one way or another, and I feel a little all at sea with 2018. I have been finding it hard to focus my mind right outside of work, which has eaten up the odd evening too. Sleep has been hard to come by, waking early regardless of what time I bed down, not wanting to crawl out into cold mornings. I have been more or less constantly tired... except when I was ill, when I felt sparkier than I had been for a while. Life is odd, as I say. I am finding this album soothing and a little soporific. I don't mean that it is boring me, but that it is relaxing. The single guitar is clear and tuneful, but also soft and repetitive. The lone female voice not always urgent... those long lines absent from some songs, lapsing into repeated choruses.
Looking down the track list at the start of this listen - which is a nice break from "Complete" works - I had hopes for Intelligentactile101. Based on the name alone I figured this would be one of the less conventional tracks. There is a child-like aspect to it, a playfulness to the simple melody. That said it also feels a little underdone, like the structure really needed a bit more (most noticeably percussion) to make it work. I suspect I might prefer the original version. Like Undress, The Complete Kismet Acoustic is a re-take of another album. I don't (currently) own Kismet but I think its fair to say that I will soon. I didn't own Hunting My Dress first either.
This line here to break up the sadly uniform paragraph structures.
Sad that I had to do that, but I haven't been flowing with ideas for short, snappy insights relating to the music. It feels like I have been listening to this for a very long time, but I am only just over half way through. I think this is probably more a statement on how restless and unsettled I have been feeling more than a stick to beat the album with though. Anyone who has read one of these posts before will be aware that I am never keen to over-criticise first listens - not that those people exist.
Ooh, Hoop has gone for French. I think I have another version of Reves dans le Creux on another disc, I vaguely remember having to rip it from physical media. Yeah. Snowglobe. I really like the effect that songs in foreign tongues can elicit, I am reminded of Julie Fowlis' Gaelic, or Regina Spektor lapsing into Russian. I don't think its pure exoticism, I think it is more the change up.
Money has more to it, there is a little more instrumentation here, another layer, and more interest as a result. This has the air of a track that could grow into a favourite, even if at the same time it seems to flout the premise (I doubt that all these extra sounds are acoustic). There is a hint here of the playing with rhythm that sucks me in every time I hear the undressed version of Tulip, for example. It's not as pronounced here, but there's a cool to it all the same.
As the music falls back into a more sparse and less immediately engaging pattern, I find myself thinking this doesn't really work as an album. Tonally something like Money, but to a lesser extent things like Out the Back Door and Intelligentactile101 too, don't sit well alongside noodle-y little songs over classical-style guitar sounds. I find myself wondering whether the same applies to the non-acoustic original. I will be able to hear in due course.
I am hoping this listen will put an end to my listlessness. The past few evenings, and all day today (it's Saturday) I have done nothing of note, not feeling like I want to do anything. Brain won't countenance thinky things, body (and the woeful winter weather) not supporting ideas of doing anything more active. I pine for what Hoop is singing about now... summer; I would take spring. I dislike the dark, I care not for the cold.
So far there hasn't been any of the really cool use of rhythm that sold Undress to me utterly. Instead these seem more traditional songs, less creative, less sure. The guitar has a nice snap to it, and there is a lively beat to Out the Back Door, but it feels... young? Uncertain, following more than leading... this tune is a step up from the first two though in terms of more than a passing interest. Hoop's voice here is light, also reinforcing the feeling of youth - though I'm pretty sure she was not that young when this was recorded.
I start to hear some themes and tells that tie this to the other material I am familiar with. Nice use of lyrics outside of traditional line structures, for instance, was one of the features that made me fall in thrall of Hoop's songs, and her vocal style really supports this approach, apparent sharp short breaths punctuating long stretches with constant vocal, hold-overs with long notes as the tune catches up. I like the way it draws my ear in, I like the way it stands out, and the sense of falling forward, onward ever after.
I have had an odd start to the year one way or another, and I feel a little all at sea with 2018. I have been finding it hard to focus my mind right outside of work, which has eaten up the odd evening too. Sleep has been hard to come by, waking early regardless of what time I bed down, not wanting to crawl out into cold mornings. I have been more or less constantly tired... except when I was ill, when I felt sparkier than I had been for a while. Life is odd, as I say. I am finding this album soothing and a little soporific. I don't mean that it is boring me, but that it is relaxing. The single guitar is clear and tuneful, but also soft and repetitive. The lone female voice not always urgent... those long lines absent from some songs, lapsing into repeated choruses.
Looking down the track list at the start of this listen - which is a nice break from "Complete" works - I had hopes for Intelligentactile101. Based on the name alone I figured this would be one of the less conventional tracks. There is a child-like aspect to it, a playfulness to the simple melody. That said it also feels a little underdone, like the structure really needed a bit more (most noticeably percussion) to make it work. I suspect I might prefer the original version. Like Undress, The Complete Kismet Acoustic is a re-take of another album. I don't (currently) own Kismet but I think its fair to say that I will soon. I didn't own Hunting My Dress first either.
This line here to break up the sadly uniform paragraph structures.
Sad that I had to do that, but I haven't been flowing with ideas for short, snappy insights relating to the music. It feels like I have been listening to this for a very long time, but I am only just over half way through. I think this is probably more a statement on how restless and unsettled I have been feeling more than a stick to beat the album with though. Anyone who has read one of these posts before will be aware that I am never keen to over-criticise first listens - not that those people exist.
Ooh, Hoop has gone for French. I think I have another version of Reves dans le Creux on another disc, I vaguely remember having to rip it from physical media. Yeah. Snowglobe. I really like the effect that songs in foreign tongues can elicit, I am reminded of Julie Fowlis' Gaelic, or Regina Spektor lapsing into Russian. I don't think its pure exoticism, I think it is more the change up.
Money has more to it, there is a little more instrumentation here, another layer, and more interest as a result. This has the air of a track that could grow into a favourite, even if at the same time it seems to flout the premise (I doubt that all these extra sounds are acoustic). There is a hint here of the playing with rhythm that sucks me in every time I hear the undressed version of Tulip, for example. It's not as pronounced here, but there's a cool to it all the same.
As the music falls back into a more sparse and less immediately engaging pattern, I find myself thinking this doesn't really work as an album. Tonally something like Money, but to a lesser extent things like Out the Back Door and Intelligentactile101 too, don't sit well alongside noodle-y little songs over classical-style guitar sounds. I find myself wondering whether the same applies to the non-acoustic original. I will be able to hear in due course.
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