With 31 tracks selected by Joan as a Police Woman (Joan Wasser) herself and by her manager Tom Rose, as well as a bonus live CD, the label Pias were thinking big when celebrating 15 years of activity for the woman who cut her teeth with Antony and the Johnsons and Jeff Buckley. The first part respects a scrupulous chronological order, beginning with 7 tracks taken from her first opus, Real Life (2006). Right from these first steps, the singer-songwriter’s style was already in place, with a mixture of deep emotion and sweet energy, perfectly embodied in a song like Christobel. 5 tracks from To Survive (2008) follow, starting with Honor Wishes, a song celebrating the marriage of the strange with sensuality, in which a simultaneously jazzy, shaky and timid piano blends with the heavenly choirs of the great David Sylvian. This instrument is also present in the fanfare of To America (featuring Rufus Wainwright).
In the second part of this anthology, this perfect chronology is slightly interrupted by the presence of a Prince cover (Kiss) as well as the previously unpublished What a World: Joan observes a painful world where joy is nevertheless inexplicably present. Not far from this kind of little surprise, we will of course find highlights from her 2010s period, in which this violinist devotes more time to musical experimentation (The Magic, Holy City). Above all, what emerges from this splendid collection of songs is Joan Wassner’s talent in the art of songwriting, demonstrating an impeccable know-how in which the melodic line includes orchestral audacity. Inventiveness, beauty, clarity and simplicity: these 31 songs clearly illustrate the American artist’s idea (utopian or not) at the heart of her second album. “I am convinced that by creating beauty within and around yourself, you give yourself the chance to live in a better world.” © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz