Joan as Police Woman

You asked for it, you got it- a double album recorded with my glorious band in the studio documenting the Damned Devotion tour.

Joan Wasser's first Joan as Police Woman album, Real Life, mourned the loss of her lover, Jeff Buckley, while her second, To Survive, mourned the loss of her mother. The Deep Field, however, finds her alone but not lonely, still searching for something and finding beauty and even happiness, if not answers. Wasser reunited with producer Bryce Goggin for this set of songs, but the guests that popped up on her previous albums are notably absent, as is much of the sadness that made Real Life and To Survive as wrenching as they were compelling. Not that The Deep Field is entirely clear sailing: on “Nervous,” she’s shaken precisely because things are going so well with a new love, while on “Run for Love,” she cautions, “I don’t wanna talk on the future with you” even as she revels in togetherness. Here, her highs are as stratospheric as her lows were deep before; “The Action Man” starts as a spin around the dancefloor and ends with Wasser losing track of time and space. These unique twists she puts on happiness keep the album fresh, even when its second half ventures into the smoothest musical territory Wasser has yet explored.

The Solution Is Restless was written and recorded with Dave Okumu of The Invisible and legendary drummer Tony Allen shortly before he sadly passed away.

The twelfth of her studio albums, Lemons, Limes, and Orchids is a crowning showcase of Joan's voice in all its metamorphic splendour. “I was ready to make an album that truly featured my voice. The basics were recorded like they used to be- with me singing live along with the band. My good friend said told me this is the sexiest album I’ve ever made. Honestly, I think she’s right. The record is a nocturne about love and loss — what else is there? — and a reckoning with our collective disorientation, part hymn to holding on and part benediction of letting go. Joan has toured the globe, performing in dive bars and symphony halls, at independent music festivals and on the BBC, and has collaborated with a kaleidoscope of luminaries, including Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, John Cale, Laurie Anderson, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Beck, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, David Byrne, and Daniel Johnston. She has participated in three Africa Express trips, teaches at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, lives in Brooklyn, and loves the world.