Hunting My Dress

Jesca Hoop | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (August 10, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B003UH3RPK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,531 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Whispering Light

2. The Kingdom

3. Feast of the Heart

4. Angel Mom

5. Four Dreams

6. Murder of Birds

7. Bed Across the Sea

8. Tulip

9. Hunting My Dress

Editorial Reviews

Guardian

Hunting My Dress sounds like the sprouting of a wondrous new talent. Four stars

Four stars

An unguarded, pretention-free treat of a record.

Product Description

U.S. vinyl LP pressing. 2010 sophomore album from the singer/songwriter. Titled Hunting My Dress, the stunning collection finds the California native meditating on her recent move to Manchester, England, where Hoop received a heroine's welcome thanks in part to an endorsement by one of her most devoted fans, Guy Garvey of the widely respected U.K. rock act Elbow. Garvey contributes guest vocals to 'Murder Of Birds'.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous on many levels..., August 10, 2010

By 

Jason Miles "miles" (Columbus, Ohio (Go Blue Jackets!)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunting My Dress [+Digital Booklet] (MP3 Download)

An amazing album - lyrics & production matching the beauty of her voice. Sounds, progressions, & lyrics all strike emotional chords. Overall - it moves me. The melody lines & harmonies are complex & extremely well executed. The album reminds me of a big old house - spacious & sparse at times, other times beauty of which isn't often seen these days - at times haunting & ghostly while sometimes touching on the beauty of summer sun. If you're looking for something original, something not created on a mac, something organic, gorgeous, & haunting... this is it. Highly recommended and I'm thrilled I came across such beauty.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Diverse Complexity, July 27, 2010

By 

J. Loudon (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunting My Dress [+ bonus EP] (Audio CD)

Growing up with a musical Mormon family, Hoop learned the art of music at a very early age, but eventually parted ways from her roots after her parents separated. The following years were fairly nomadic as she toured the west writing her own music until she got a job as the nanny for Tom Waits' children. With his obvious connections to the music industry, her demo eventually made it into the hands of Nic Harcourt, a well-known DJ for Santa Monica's KCRW, whose weekly program titled Sounds Eclectic plays a wide variety of music that includes a large number of emerging artists.

Now, with her second full-length album, Jesca Hoop sounds like a pro; pulling aspects of her influences into her music, but blending them in such a way that makes the resulting sounds very much her own. The most noticeable feature of Hunting My Dress is the diversity heard from track to track. The simplicity of "Whispering Light" fades into the echoing complexity of "The Kingdom" before "Feast of the Heart" drops a significantly catchier beat on the listener and even adds distortion to the vocals, darkening the mood; and those are just the first three tracks.

Although there are a wide variety of rhythms and vocal styles heard on Hunting My Dress, the flow between songs remains perfectly intact. "Angel Mom" follows "Feast of the Heart" with a completely different instrumentation and vocal timbre, but the tempo between both tracks is nearly identical which provides enough of a transition to prevent a shocking moment. The changeover is more abrupt between "Angel Mom" and "Four Dreams," but "Angel Mom" does have the occasional loud crash to foreshadow the coming chaos.

Jesca Hoop, while structured in her songwriting, is still a very experimental artist. Taking after Tom Waits, she makes beauty out of uncharacteristic sounds from time to time which may throw many listeners off of her trail, but any audience willing to take a leap of faith will be rewarded for their courage by the time the album concludes.

Similar Artists: Joanna Newsom, Joni Mitchell

Track Suggestion: "Feast of the Heart"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh!, January 12, 2010

By 

Christina A. Huffman "Christy" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hunting My Dress (Audio CD)

Jesca's off-the-beaten-path delivery makes her second album just as intoxicating as her first. Her strong, confident voice and heady lyrics mesmerize from the first note to the last. The CD left me wanting more -in a good way.