Jesca Hoop - Kismet
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:Love Is All We Have
9 Stars out of TenReared on a mixture of Mormonism and folk music, Jesca Hoop has since lived in the wilderness of Arizona’s homesteads and served as a nanny for Tom Waits. Now her debut album Kismet sees all the influences synergized into an off-balance cacophony, a collection of tunes still half-wild, dancing through the outskirts of the forest with a restless sense of freedom. _Summertime_ opens the album with the ominous cackle of a crow, subsiding into sweeping, ecstatic vocals which carry a rejoicing gospel influences before plunging into a sultry verse. Grabbing you by the hand, this track pulls you deeper into the forest from which it appeared, this glimpse of life drawing you closer. The reward for following the path is the fireside folk of _Seed of Wonder_, a track which seems at times tribal, bursting with an occult like energy. Burst of music seem to appear from the undergrowth, almost invisible in the flickering light hiding as much as they reveal. The result is an uplifting trance-like journey, which despite leaving you dazed and confused fills the soul with an ecstatic glee. But this does not last for long as foreboding heavy breathing fills the procession’s place. _Enemy_ sees the listener awake into the most traditional strong so far. A delicate folk piece of vocals and guitar, which glimmers and dances like the dappled sunlight pouring through the green canvas this intrigues and enchants with it’s ferocious simplicity and beauty. The childlike vocals of _Silverscreen_ are keen to break this dream however, as their innocence is paired with menacing strings to create a truly terrifying juxtaposition of naivety and knowingness, a feeling that gives way as the vocals become more cutting. Shining forth however as the most beautiful track on an album streaming with splendour is the incandescent _Love is All We Have_. Sounding timeless with its Celtic overtones, it mystifies and teases, drawing on the imagination, liberating the listener and transporting them through time and space to a dreamlike netherworld. Light as air, this insubstantial mist of a song possesses an almost organic quality, intricate and delicate as a spider’s web. But even closing track _Love and Love Again_ is unremitting in its mystique. A fluttering piano carries an otherworldly singing style like a leaf in a breeze, intoxicating and engrossing your mind. This entire album shines with an effortless glimmer. It constantly effuses a charming, somewhat magical aura, appearing through the wild forest like a secretive coven, drawing you into its rhythms and melodies and releasing you from the body that weighs you down. Indeed much of the record’s brilliance comes from it’s own lack of weight – airy and unsubstantial, the record flutters through your conscious with an elegant glide. Whimsical and well-constructed, this record should captivate many a heart.
Comments (9)