Eh, it’s early so I’m going to write a review? Am I?! Apparently!
I bought Joan as Police Woman’s first er release (was it an EP) back then, and I was underwhelmed, so I didn’t listen to any of her stuff for like the next 20 years. But then I randomly bought Joanthology, and duh. So much great stuff. Just banger after banger. So I’ve gotten all of her albums over the last couple years, and they’re all good.
I saw she was playing here, and got a ticket, and then she released her latest album which is… er… bad? Yes, it’s bad. A critic described it as being more singer-oriented (complimentary), but I thought she just forgot to write any tunes (derogatory).
(This sort of thing has happened to me several times — I get into an artist, and then the next album sucks! I guess I’m a trailing indicator…)
So I almost didn’t go to this thing, but I did anyway, and it was pretty good? The two musicians she had with here were excellent. The guitarist was fab (he did a Michio Kurihara-like solo on one of the final songs (complimentary)), and I was also really impressed by the drummer. Joan has a tendency to program drum patterns that seem like they would be awkward to actually do live (like seven snare drum hits, and then a high hat and then a tom and then repeat) — they’re like stuff you noodle on the drum sequencer. But he played all that stuff perfectly!
And they’re good vocalists, too, so it almost didn’t seem like she was travelling with a way-too-small band… But I think it limited what songs she could do. Like, she didn’t do The Silence, which would probably be impossible to do without a large band (what with the call and response). I know, I know, it’s impossible for an artist like Joan as Police Woman to finance a large touring band, so we get what we get, and what we got was pretty good.
But too many songs off of the new album, which really isn’t very good.
There! I’ve written a review! It’s not going to happen again!