Joan Wasser goes by the stage-name Joan As Police Woman. She writes some fairly arresting music. For William Dart, there's no point resisting - he goes along quietly with her 2018 album Damned Devotion.
Joan as Police Woman, Damned Devotion cover image Photo: Play It Again Sam
Back in 1995, when the song 'Drive By Kiss' first appeared on the Dambuilder’s second album, it was one of the disc’s gentler tracks.
In fact, comment has been made that it could fit very well alongside the easy-flow ballads our own Crowded House. For our purposes though, it’s an introduction to the woman you can hear bowing some rather low-key violin against David Derby’s vocals.
Joan Wasser was an integral part of the Dambuilders sound, but today she’s better known through the persona of Joan as Police Woman. A slightly tongue-in-cheek moniker, paying its own retro tribute to Angie Dickinson, heroine of that late 70s TV cop show, Police Woman.
And if, like me, you can’t get that image of Angie in pursuit mode, with a gun in one hand and handbag in the other, you might also have a soft spot for Morton Stevens's punchy if generic theme music.
Joan Wasser’s first solo outing under her new name, the 2007 album, Real Life, was far removed from the brash copside hustle of that TV theme.
This was New York art studio stuff, featuring musicians like Joseph Arthur and Antony Hegarty on the side, signing off with this spine-tingling remembrance of murdered songwriter and composer Elliot Smith, with low-key violin traded in for low-key viola.
A year on from this, Joan Wasser’s 2008 album, To Survive, came with a significant title. One felt her striving for an audience outside of the Lower Manhattan loft set.
The songs were more centred, harmonically and rhythmically . . . almost as if an act of skilful and deliberate homogenisation had taken place.
As one reviewer commented, this music was a little like what Chopin might have sounded like had he been a multi-instrumentalist with a passion for Al Green and a voice like Roberta Flack.
All of which is unfurled in a duet with the album’s star guest, Rufus Wainwright. "To America" is a song that plays personal issues against a wider political backdrop, with early hints of Kurt Weill climaxing in what comes pretty close to a full-on Broadway-style chorus.
Joan Wasser doesn’t exactly look relaxed on the cover of her latest album. She seems rather severe and maybe a little worried in her black leather, holding a somewhat puny bouquet.
Is this all part of the grudging title, Damned Devotion? But no, the opening track spills out the smoothest of soulfulness.
Listening through this most recent Joan as Police Woman set, it’s not difficult to hear Joan Wasser dispensing a few darkish revelations. In the album’s final track, titled "I don’t mind", any languor or breeziness is undercut by explosive thuds and crashes in the song’s background.
A ballad of retreat and reclusiveness, a feeling of entrapment in a place where bowls might host hand grenades rather than cherries.
Check out the complete programme to hear much more. Click 'Listen' above.
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Drive By Kiss' (The Dambuilders) – The Dambuilders
Kids at Heart
(Artists Only!)
'Police Woman, Theme Music from Television Series' (Stevens) – Morton Stevens
single
(BSX)
'We Don’t Own It' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
Real Life
(PIAS)
'To America' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
To Survive
(PIAS)
'The Classic' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
The Classic
(PIAS)
'Shame' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
The Classic
(PIAS)
'Magic Lamp' (Wasser/Davis) – Joan as Police Woman and Benjamin Lazar Davis
Let It Be You
(Reveal)
'Wonderful' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
Damned Devotion
(PIAS)
'Tell Me' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
Damned Devotion
(PIAS)
'I Don’t Mind' (Wasser) – Joan as Police Woman
Damned Devotion
(PIAS)
'Steed (for Jean Genet0' (Wasser/ Kindred) – Joan as Police Woman
Damned Devotion
(PIAS)
