Product Description

Real Life brought Joan Wasser out of the shadows and established her as
that rare thing, a truly unique and original voice. Songwriter, singer and
multi-instrumentalist, Joan has bewitched fans across Europe and the
US over the last two years and is set to garner a wealth of new devotees
with To Survive.
An album of unashamedly heartfelt songs, in Joans words, I am always
trying to dig deeper into the emotional experience. I want to access
the most honest place I can, distill it and present it in a way that makes
sense musically.
The title track catches the overall tone of the record best. A haunting
piano ballad with a melody that refuses to settle, To Survive was inspired
by a lullaby her mother used to sing to her as a child to allay her recurrent
fear that was about to be burned at the stake, like the other Joan. I
still feel like that as an adult sometimes, Wasser says cryptically. And I
dont edit out or water down those feelings. Why should I? Everything I
do comes from my heart.

Track Listing

1. honor my wishes
2. holiday
3. to be loved
4. to be lonely
5. magpies
6. start of my heart
7. hard white wall
8. furious
9. to survive
10. to america

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81904 in Music
• Released on: 2008-06-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .14 pounds

Customer Reviews

Sophisticated delicacies.
Although the kooky band name remains, Joan Wasser's second album sees the classically trained, American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist moving confidently away from the "alternativeness" of her 2006 debut and into richly melodic terrain.
The smart, dark voice she found with Antony and the Johnsons and on tour with Rufus Wainwright swirls elegantly around melancholic piano ballads and heartening brass-funky closing-time soul numbers.
The follow-up to 2006's "Real Life" is a comparatively stripped-down affair, the singer preferring to leave her songs less encumbered by elaborate arrangements.
The exception is "Magpies", on which the string and horn counterpoints and backing vocals throw the serpentine melody away from the song's centre.
"To Be Lonely" is a subtle splendour, Wasser's voice curling around a simple piano melody, while the arrangement of "To America" has shades of Kurt Weill, aptly so given its subtext of capitalist corruption: this is the closing track that really bursts out of the collection. An opus to her homeland which is at once both indignant and celebratory, it features Rufus Wainwright and could easily stand as a sister piece to his own "Going To A Town".
The equally impressive "Hard White Wall", is a meandering delight that peaks and troughs in thrilling style.
Joan Wasser had plenty to do to equal the brilliance of her debut, but in "To Survive", she has done just that, cementing her status as as an intriguing and compelling artist.
Imagine a subtle mix of Roberta Flack and Kate Bush, with a 21st-century lyrical sensibility, and you're pretty close to the core of a woman who believes that "beauty is the new punk rock".
It may be dripping in melancholy, as many of the songs were partly inspired by her mother's death from cancer, but there's a heart-melting quality about this new collection of songs that's only best appreciated after a few listens.
It's a slow-building, but ultimately very lively, horn-inflicted final salvo that ensures you depart the album with the right kind of feelgood glow.
If you have yet to discover the delights of Joan As Police Woman, then "To Survive" is a suitably impressive entry point.
My picks: "To Be Loved", "Start Of My Heart", "Hard White Wall", "Furious, Holiday".

Fresh, contemporary, bluesy jazz. A gem.
The name of Joan Wasser's band comes from her supposed resemblance to Angie Dickinson in the Seventies TV show "Police Woman". But that is where the daftness ends.
This is bracingly fresh contemporary bluesy jazz.
Two years on from Joan As Policewoman's startling debut, success has been bittersweet for the backing singer-turned-indie heroine Joan W.
Following the loss of her mother from cancer, she eulogises love in a trembling voice and with a tear-stained smile.
Her emotion-rich songs have become tender affirmations, such as the hope-sprinkled "Honor My Wishes".
And the needling guitar, soulful brass and gothic piano of her "punk rock R&B" are more evocative than ever.
"Holiday" flitting up the scales like a musical honey bee in search of pop pollen, recalling Joni Mitchell's "Hissing Of Summer Lawns".
"To Be Loved" is ecstatically soppy, deliberately contrasting with the solemnity of the following tune, "To Be Lonely".
Cascading harmonies and chimes soften the wheezing of intrusive synths. You can hear old friend Rufus Wainwright passing the torch to a woman who's not just surviving, but flourishing.
Standouts: "Holiday" and "To America".

a rare gem
Maybe I'm getting old, but there hasn't been much in rock or pop music since about 1994 that I have found worthy of any notice. Elliott Smith and the Eels are among the rare exceptions. But this may well be the best of the lot. Great stuff.