Joan As Police Woman – The Deep Field

Following on from 2008’s emotionally super-weighty ode to her recently passed mother, To Survive, NYC’s Joan Wasser returns with her third album. As with all of JAPW’s output to date, it’s an album almost wholly defined by Wasser’s distinctively commanding locution over the music, here again perfectly following the emotional nuance of every chord, ramping from fevered confessional to youthful angst with an admirable effortlessness.

Stylistically The Deep Field finds Wasser reflecting on her path so far, reworking those influences deftly; opener Nervous aptly startles with a jagged hark back to her earliest EP, whilst the heralding Run for Love sits at the polar end of her career – dense, matured and dignified. That it works so fluidly is testament to both her talent and the rich body of work she’s amassed, to which The Deep Field is an outstanding addition. [Paul Neeson]