Notoriously I'm out of step in general with my musical tastes. Much like Jesca it seems, and Johnny Ramone before her, I tend to think everything that came earlier on is always better. Always more inspired and genuine than something newly downloadable.
I mean, how can it not be, really? Most everything is revivalist to some degree which inherently arrives without a pedigree. . . unless there's some taste exhibited. Something new sewn into the fabric. A hint or authenticity bordering on a sense of danger or mystery. A world-weary need to reinvent. To reimagine.
Which Ms. Hoop has in spades.
And notoriously I rarely, if ever, agree with critics. But I am sensing some like minds amidst a number of them out there when it comes to Jesca's new LP, "Hunting My Dress."
“She spins a balance between play and poignancy, complexity and catchiness, without breaking a thread.” —The Observer
“In a voice that ranges from gentle, crystalline charm to edgy intensity, she’s in turn playful, bluesy, haunting, and folky. What prevents this all from becoming a mish-mash of textures is Hoop’s single minded passion, which lends a self assured cohesion to her diversity.” 4 STARS —Uncut
“A new sound that is both studied and inspired.” 4 STARS —Q
“Hunting My Dress rejoices in off-the-cuff dreamlike sensuality, pitching and rolling in all sorts of pleasingly unexpected directions.” 4 STARS —Mojo
“Veers between Kate Bush meets Bat For Lashes away-with-the-fairies pop, PJ Harvey ballsy blues-rock, and sultry folk – all done with the kind of slightly off-kilter art-house production you’d expect of Bjork.” —The Telegraph
Yet as I often say here, don't take my word for it. Hell, in this guise I'm a critic.
We have a copy of Jesca Hoop's new LP to award one among you who can pick up the thread started here and run with the baton with some well wrung words in the comments to this post. Older music/newer music—where am I wrong or right? How does Jesca fit in among this thread?
We'll choose one from the insightful bunch next Tuesday, 8/10, and important—remember to leave us a contact email address!
Jesca Hoop -Feast of the Heart (Mp3)
Authorized for download!
3 comments:
You're both absolutely right and absolutely wrong to love old over new. The stuff of our youth replayed incarnates old loops and memories, stokes souls in ways that something unfamiliar never could. But just like that fire in Jesca's vid, passions smolder without new fuel. Try and replicate the feeling when your lips grace a new loves skin and your nostrils fill with their scent. It's an excitement and passion an old flame can't ever replicate. The same is true the first time you see a new band take the stage and vocals and instruments resonate so you feel it in your spine. I couldn't imagine life with out it.
The smell of musty old vinyl or plasticine new? I could never pick just one. Thankfully music doesn't bear the mutual exclusivity of lovers.
scottreitz(at)gmail.com
I just wrote an album review about "Hunting My Dress" around a week ago at my blog!
http://nosleepatnight.blogspot.com/2010/07/jesca-hoop-hunting-my-dress.html
I definitely have that nostalgia for the "older" things, be it the debut album of my favorite band from this decade or be it music from a decade in years past. And I have fallen victim to believing that what came before is always better, no matter what; I will viciously argue that the 60s produced the best music, ever, period. I'll also contest that the first record of Kings of Leon, a favorite of mine, is better than anything they've made since.
But completely rejecting the new stuff is also ignorant and silly. We need to allow artists to reinterpret either themselves, the past, or both simultaneously. While looking backwards is fun, enjoyable, and comfortable, looking forward is a learning experience that might just rub us the wrong way at times. Jesca's new album certainly takes on a darker sound than her previous work, but it is undoubtedly gorgeous and stunning. I thank her for the contribution of her beautiful ideas into our present world, or else I could be completely content with being stuck in the past.
ocd44 at hotmail dot com
Well, to be fair, I'm not rejecting new artists and music over old. I merely said there's a tangible authenticity lacking in the current crop who mine the past.
...Y'know - over and over.
I mean, I remember my first beer.
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