Joan As Police Woman: Lemons, Limes And Orchids (Play It Again Sam - PIAS) September 20th 2024

Album Of The Month [September]

(5 / 5)

In the time I have written music reviews, I cannot recall ever trotting out the lazy accolade “a masterpiece” about any album I have been asked to review. Until now that is…

Fanfare please: Joan As Police Woman’s “Lemons, Limes and Orchids” is quite simply a beautiful and magnificent career-defining piece of work. It is in its own lane. It is VERY special and one of those albums that must be heard as a full project, track by track in order, and not dipped in and out of. Plus, it will grow on you the more times you listen.

“Lemons, Limes & Orchids” will mark Joan As Police Woman’s first project since the 2021 release of “The Solution Is Restless”. In October she’ll be embarking on her own European headline tour which will see her play London’s Union Chapel, as well as dates in Glasgow, Manchester, Berlin, Paris, and more.

There are a dozen tracks here: Joan’s 12th studio album release, opening with the quite mesmerising “The Dream”, which will bury the infectious hook’s riff in your head from the get-go. I cannot fault anything on this album. Not one track, not one song, not one minute. Nada. Zilch.

Instrument

Of course, personal taste means we will all pick different tracks as our favourites, but no matter which of the 12 songs/tracks here you love, like or maybe dislike, there is a common thread throughout: Joan’s voice as her instrument is at its very best. So her aim to make a record to showcase her vocals has hit the bullseye without doubt.

After track one, “The Dream”, she delivers: “Full-Time Heist”, earworm “Back Again”, “With Hope In My Breath”, “Long For Ruin” [vibes of Dusty Springfield], “Started Off Free”, “Remember The Voice”, “Oh Joan”, title track “Lemons, Limes And Orchids”, “Tribute To Holding On” [the shortest cut here at 2.48], the penultimate track “Safe To Say” [longest of the dozen at 5.17], and the superb set closes with “Help Is On Its Way”. All bloody wonderful…

Joan Wasser aka Joan As Police Woman was born in Maine USA in July 1970, named after Joan of Arc, adopted with her brother at infancy just outside New York City. She fell in love with music very early and began the violin at eight-years-old.

At high school she was asked to perform Mahler’s Resurrection in an all-state orchestra. She went on to study classical violin at Boston University. During her time at university Joan was drawn to new classical compositions written for smaller ensembles; she listened to Joni Mitchell, art rock, Bad Brains, Jimi Hendrix and simultaneously started pushing the boundaries on her violin [often through amplification].

Performing regularly with several indie rock bands including The Dambuilders with whom she recorded and toured the world with in the early 1990’s sharing stages with Weezer, Sonic Youth, Helium, Beck and a myriad of grunge-era alt’ rock stars. Joan finally moved to New York full-time in 1994, but when her partner and soulmate Jeff Buckley drowned, the violin became too small to hold the immensity of emotion.

Grief

She began singing, first with her friends in Black Beetle to work through the grief, then in 2002 she rebirthed as Joan as Police Woman, so named in cheeky homage to Angie Dickinson’s 1970s cop show. Joan sang, played piano, guitar, bass and penned her own string arrangements as she composed and wrote her own songs.

In 1999 she joined Anthony & The Johnsons and recorded “I Am A Bird Now”, which was an international hit and won the Mercury Music Prize in 2005. In 2004 she toured with Rufus Wainwright on his “Want” I and II albums.

Joan had begun to make her own recordings, performing solo as opener for Rufus Wainwright in theatres around the world and, following one of her early support shows at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in the UK, Joan replied to a positive message on Myspace from Derby indie record store owner Tom Rose, who wanted to start an indie label – which he did: Reveal Records.

Soon after, her music was being played on BBC Radio by Marc Riley. She released her EP in 2004, and then her debut album “Real Life” in 2006, featuring Anthony on the single “I Defy”, to wild acclaim and numerous ‘Best Of’ accolades.

Following an 18-month world tour for “Real Life”, Joan lost her mother. The weight of that loss can be heard on her second album, “To Survive”, featuring David Sylvian of the legendary band Japan as guest vocalist on “Honor Wishes”, and Rufus Wainwright on the album closer, “To America”.

Upon being a musician Joan said: “Music has saved my life. It’s not something I can even choose or not choose, it’s just what it is.” She came out of the darkness in 2009 with her first covers record, re-interpretations of songs by Bowie, Hendrix, Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth and even Britney Spears, playing a handful of more experimental duo shows while writing songs for 2011’s “The Deep Field”.

For 2014’s “The Classic”, Joan sprayed her body gold for the cover art and took on a richer, playful, soulful sound. “Let It Be You”, her 2016 album with multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Benjamin Lazar Davis, “dazzled and surprised”. By Valentine’s Day 2018, Joan announced her “Damned Devotion” album for PIAS, with radio hit singles “Warning Bell” and “Tell Me”.

“Damned Devotion” became her most rapturously received work since “Real Life” some 12 years earlier, and Joan played a sold-out Royal Festival Hall show in London before touring the world and a new wave of collaborations. “I just want to be making music all the time”, she says. “I am in service to this wild invisible force that makes people dance, cry, kiss, feel all the feelings, and connects us to ourselves and to each other.”

VIP Collaborators

This has led to a large and diverse list of co-collaborators: Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, Lou Reed, Hal Willner, Beck, Afel Bocoum, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Sparklehorse, Laurie Anderson, Sufjan Stevens, John Cale, Aldous Harding, Woodkid, Justin Vivian Bond, RZA, Norah Jones, Lau, Doveman, Steven Bernstein, Gorillaz, Iggy Pop, Rufus Wainwright, Anohni, Nathan Larson, David Byrne and Daniel Johnston, and three “Africa Express” tours.

In early 2019, Joan took a look back at her first 15 years of music, and gathered together studio and live recordings for a triple-disc compilation album, “Joanthology”, which also became an extensive six-month and hugely acclaimed solo world tour.

As the world stopped, gripped by the Covid pandemic, Joan holed up in her home studio working on new songs she formed out of her late night Parisian jam session with Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, mixing live tracks, experimenting and uniquely covering songs. In May 2020 [on her own ‘Sweet Police’ label] she released “Covers Two”, her second album of covers, re-interpreting songs by Gil Scott Heron, Prince, The Strokes and Neil Young.

In October of the same year, “Simplicity”, written by Joan and Damon Albarn, was released by Warner Brothers as part of Gorillaz’ “Song Machine” album. Before 2020 was out, Joan also released her first live album, a seventeen-song live-in-the-studio recording of the set her band had honed over several months on the road. 2021 opened with an invitation to work at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Record Music as a mentor for production and song-writing. Joan has subsequently been invited back every semester.

On November 5th 2021, Joan released a new double album, “The Solution Is Restless”, a joint release between Joan As Police Woman, master drummer Tony Allen, and multi-instrumentalist Dave Okumu.

Here in 2024, “Lemons, Limes and Orchids” shines the spotlight on Joan’s spine-tingling and innate vocal skills – the very best her voice has sounded on any of her output thus far, say I – and on her beautiful touch on piano and the gorgeous string arrangements, all of which serve probably the best songs she has given birth to so far in her career. I will note: I get very subtle aromas of Queen Joni Mitchell across this project, which is no bad thing.

The album features production and instrumentation from an impressive list of collaborators. The accomplished personnel includes Grammy-winning Meshell Ndegeocello on bass, Chris Bruce (Seal, Trevor Horn, Alanis Morisette) on guitar, Daniel Mintseris (St. Vincent, David Byrne, Elvis Costello & The Imposters) on keys, and Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley, Liam Gallagher) and Otto Hauser alternating on drums.

“The record is a nocturne about love and loss and a reckoning with our collective disorientation, part hymn to holding on and part benediction of letting go.”

My choice for album of the month for September, and I am glad to say that the editor wholeheartedly agrees with my suggestion. I will not be at all surprised to see this sparkling gem achieve album of the year – and odds on for a Grammy – from many tastemakers who, like me, yearn for something very special.

Yes, something different to the conveyor belt of mediocrity so common today, with many releases sounding the damn same and much of which should be deemed a crime – it may well be time to call the cops. Well, one particular WPC…