Customer Reviews

Hunting My Dress

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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"

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.

I stumbled across this album in my search for new music. It's a little bit different, but I'm loving it so far. The only problem is that the file for track 10, Enemy, seems to be corrupt. It's only 20 seconds long when it should be closer to three-and-a-half minutes. Other than that, I'm finding it to be a good listen. I recommend "The Kingdom" (the video is pretty neat; watch it on her website).

Jesca Hoop's music is Full...full of poetic lyricism, poignant reflection, haunting melodic refrains, soothingly sweet phrasing. Following 'Kismet' I had many high expectations for Ms Hoop and each one has been met tenfold. She's everything and more of a Singer/Songwriter in perfect combination with her dichotomic connections between self and the outside world...at least in facing the outside world, I want to be listening to her music. Her beautiful voice does nothing short of mesmerize. Kudos Jesca on another brilliant album!

Full of textural nuance and lyrical phrasing, Jesca Hoop's "Hunting My Dress," is by far my favorite music release of the year. Brilliant.

J.T. Cummins

Author of Cobblestones

This is really good. The sound is crisp and dirty, a fine blend that includes some smokin' hot electric guitar riffs and artful use of sound processing effects to produce varied textures, along with the kind of soft and pretty sounds you might expect from a young female "folk music" singer/songwriter. A lot of musical talent went into making this recording, also some of that inward pain that, when released, translates as energy and edginess. First song starts like Fiona Apple but then turns a corner and opens up. This album reminds me at different points of early Jefferson Airplane, the Kate Bush "The Dreaming" album, and Loreena McKennitt. But as a whole it is not quite like anything else I've heard.

Hunting My Dress is a brilliant follow up to Kismet, although I'm perplexed that it hasn't been released in the states. Beautiful harmonies, lilting melodies, booming tribal drums-sonically impressive. Songs begin and jump off into unexpected places-which I suppose is why Jesca is compared to Kate Bush: both have the same ability to build a song and take it to unchartered realms, which at first sounds bewildering, and then draws you in to keep listening.

I like Jesca's music. I loved Kismet.

When this came out and I saw that she again fiddled with songs that I had grown to love I was kind of miffed.

Also, she seems to have gone in a direction that is more repetitive and while that has its place, this album is kind of on my so/so list.

Here is the thing though!

I am also the girl who LOVED that Tom Waits' influence could be heard all over Kismet, I also LOVED how you can hear every breath she takes while singing. The sweet, open style that I loved so much seems to be kind of growing up in this new album. Maybe not always for the best.

When I first heard Jesca Hoop I was enthralled by her beautiful voice I first heard on NPR. Her second full record is more eclectic and might not be for everyone, but I loved it. She is one artist to watch. It's a pity she moved the the U.K. and we don't get to see her live performances over here in the States much anymore.