Jesca Hoop on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

It has been quite a year for Jesca Hoop thus far. Tipped by a diverse range of UK publications from Uncut (“excellent”), Time Out (bewitching”), OMM (Tips for 2009), The Sun (‘Single of the Week’ for ‘Murder of Birds’), Esquire, Music Week and a two page feature in The Times on the back of one limited self-released UK debut EP. Interspersed shows and radio sessions for the likes of Marc Riley have had to maneuver around the recording of the follow up to her US- only debut album from 2007. This arrives in the supremely elegant and unique shape of Hunting My Dress due to be released in the UK on November 16, 2009.

The above are far from being on their own in nailing their allegiance and trumpeting the emergence of someone very special. She has received notable endorsements from Tom Waits and the nation’s new Humphrey Lyttelton-in-waiting, one Guy Garvey. He became so enchanted by her music that he invited her onto his radio show. They got on like a house on fire, so he continued his open house policy by extending an invite to join the Elbow US tour in April 2008, which led into a UK tour in October 2008 followed by another US tour in August this year. He also lends his subtle yet inimitable vocal strength to ‘Murder of Birds’.

These notable artists are not ones to bandy plaudits easily and neither should they. So what you may ask binds these people together? Maybe it is the darting melodies and sense of play nestled next to a capacity for wonder… Or maybe The Times summation gets somewhere close as “her voice swoops and pierces the high heavens and then the song soars down low”. Or maybe it is simply her ability to roll up the sleeve and get on with things and not wait for anyone to open that elusive door. She has toured relentlessly across the US and Europe, gaining fans in abundance wherever she goes. She is a force of nature that plays her intricate tunes for the right reasons. And what tunes they are. Brave and bold you can assign to her. Shrinking violet you can’t.

Oh, and did we mention her you-could-not-make-this-up background? If you have served as nanny to Tom Waits and Kathryn Brennan’s kids, most things are going to be small in comparison. Add to this her strict Mormon history in a family of five children in California where her childhood was highly musical, singing elaborate harmonies with her siblings of traditional folk songs. As her distinctive voice and obvious natural gift for inventive song craft will attest, Jesca has music running through her veins. Pursuing her own path away from her strict upbringing, fueling the visionary musical worlds in her head, Jesca traveled in the West – Wyoming, Arizona – where she became involved with such diverse activities as working in wilderness rehabilitation programs for troubled youths. When one trek too many halted this temporary world, she made her way into the aforementioned nannying position.

By then, Hoop had already been writing songs and performing with a band, and Waits took an interest in her songs from a caring distance. Through him, an early version of the swirling ‘Seed of Wonder’ (from the Kismet debut) made its way to music publisher Lionel Conway, who in turn gave it to Nic Harcourt, the musically adventurous and influential host of “Morning Becomes Eclectic” on radio KCRW in Santa Monica. After playing SXSW last year, things started to move along at a steady pace and resulted in stints in the UK and the Kismet Acoustic EP.

The making of Hunting My Dress is informed by sorrow yet ultimately the new form of love and stasis that can be left in its wake. It is also a reading of the ‘dream’ state and moments around the witching hour. It also heaves with sensuality and love. The loose acoustic framework of the Kismet Acoustic EP has been expanded upon but all the musical parts coalesce and work around Hoop’s versatile vocal performance. Her improvisational flair as a singer is one of the most significant unifying aspects of her work. She delivers her vocals as if she is making up the melody on the spot, a sure sign of natural talent.

Co- produced in conjunction with Tony Berg at his Zeitgeist studio in LA (full of a variety of “instruments, doo da's, wizzles and machineries”), Hoop sees the process as her “quickfire” record. Bagging as much energy as quickly as possible so as to not over think or crowd out the ideas. “My aim was to produce as much energy and force with as little sonic information as possible. Layers can be a rather complicated recipe. Less is more was our motto. The narrative is the centre of this record while percussion/drums and electric guitar play the primary supports. I applied as little as possible to each track and was highly protective over the voice and the story it relays. Anything is worth trying and nothing is too precious to mute” She also adds that due to the feeling surrounding the strength of the songs that “This record was relatively effortless and a sheer joy to create!” This again is quite something when you consider that she was flat broke during the whole of this recording period and borrowed studio time only when an opportunity revealed itself, working around busy schedules at odd hours. This only made for a more emboldened experience.

Again, as with the Kismet Acoustic EP, it feels as though assembled on the fly with its sparking energy. It is also warming to hear the clever intricacies of the harmonies are still intact alongside Hoop positively attacking the tracks with gusto whilst in no way crushing them. The confidence in her own vocal performance ushers away any comparisons with ‘precious’ folker’s. It is ravishing in short.

“One of my favourite tracks on the record, ‘Whispering Light’ has only my guitar, voice and drums. Another is ‘Feast Of The Heart’ which is made up of just two basses, a totally haphazard drum track and my voice. The songs were written over a span of like 16 months. As a body of work they sound like they are from the same volume...chapter...or season”. Apt that she pinpoints ‘Whispering Light’ as it opens proceedings. We are immediately into a place where she teases and goads her own lyrics, playing push me-pull you against the stark backdrop. It seems perfectly economical as was intended. This is followed by the swooping ‘The Kingdom’ where Hoop embodies a “banshee-esque battle goddess who's call it is to deliver a spell bound death to those dying, yet still attached to this earth” This story is carried on the back of monstrous percussion, through the wail of sirens and Hoop's fireside narration. The wobbly playfulness of ‘Four Dreams’ is next with its stand out dream-like slide blues interlude from Blake Mills. ‘Angel Mom’ brings forth the album centerpiece that is pretty self explanatory. Never manipulating grief, it can only invoke an ironic smile whilst being on the edge of collapse, as is mirrored within the arrangement. Truly beautiful and evocative.

‘Feast of the Heart’ drips with passion, as if Marc Ribot joins a rampant Hoop letting her tresses a go-go, with military drums adding to the maelstrom. Things are calmed by another highlight in the form of the marvellously lilting ‘Murder of Birds’. If anyone wants a lesson on how to accompany on a duet, just listen to this impeccable, restrained performance from Guy Garvey, weaving around Hoop who more than proves his equal. ‘Bed across the Sea’ in turn brandishes a new love found and pulsing heart beating hard and often.

No album would complete without a murder ballad right? Just ask Nick Cave. ‘Tulip’ delivers in spades and notches up yet another strident vocal performance. The album is rounded out by the embrace of the title track ‘Hunting My Dress’. And in the words of Jesca, it was also a way to narrate herself as a “fire carrying raccoon”! The layered backing vocals at the tail end of the track are simply stunning.

Artistic ambition and a near obsession with sound and sensual wordplay are the rule of thumb all over this delightful work. The UK should be proud that she now resides on that fair isle after a lifetime living in the US.

Jesca Hoop’s lyric, “Your passion marks you different” could not sum it up any better really. She has made the album that she most wanted, and in turn we should dive right in and sample this distinguished talent and her work.

Manchester Evening News
December 4, 2009

"Evoking Joanna Newsome, Kate Bush, and Joni Mitchell, [Hunting My Dress] has been hailed as one of 2009's finest debuts; an album which takes the folk-pop template and spins into it into beguiling new shapes, from gothic-folk-noir to sensual, opaque pop passages and even squeezes in a guest appearance from Mr Guy Garvey." Read more...

Clash
(December 2009)

Urban Life
(November 18, 2009)

Word Magazine
(January 2010)

There’s an awful lot of bluster and blather behind the recent wave of gothic female singer-songwriters. Chief culprit is probably Bat For Lashes, a rather studied and overwrought concept from the name on down. Not so Jesca Hoop. Despite a name that suggests she’s cut from similar cloth, her music doesn’t have to try very hard at all to invoke a deeply attractive spookiness. While the spiraling opener Whispering Light suggests she is no stranger to the early works of Throwing Muses, elsewhere this tough exterior gives way to a softer, folkier centre – see here the Guy Garvey-enhanced Murder Of Birds. The radio-friendly indie-pop of the wiry, clanging Four Dreams suggests she’s having a little fun too. The subject matter is also somewhat earthier than that of her contemporaries (“LA is hot as fuck, Manchester is about to freeze” sings this Californian transplanted to the north of England), making Hunting My Dress an unguarded, pretention-free treat of a record. And look! We didn’t even need to mention that she was once Tom Waits’ kids’ nanny either…
- Nige Tassell

Time Out Magazine
December 2009

Every now and again, something truly lovely that's not the family kitten will leap into your lap. The UK debut from US émigrée Hoop is just such a surprise. Alluringly warm it may be, but it’s far from fluffy and is utterly incapable of outstaying its welcome.

Hoop’s name might be familiar to Garveyphiles, as the Elbow man was an early champion of the gifted singer-songwriter and lends his soft-scuffed soul tones to ‘Murder of Birds’. This gorgeous record will inevitably attract comparisons with Bat For Lashes (for its glittering, pagan sensuality), My Brightest Diamond (for the crystalline operatics) and thus with Kate Bush (for the burnished beauty of some of its arrangements), but Hoop’s roots are in the folk round-singing tradition rather than in pop, and her spirit and vigour are very much her own. ‘LA is hot as fuck,’ she observes on ‘Bed Across the Sea’, which suggests CocoRosie backing Tom Waits (for whom Hoop once nannied) in the Australian Outback, and when she sings ‘the shape of home-baked bread’, you can almost smell it. Devastatingly delicious.

Uncut Magazine

The Guardian
(November 15, 2009)

A Californian resident in Manchester, Hoop comes hotly tipped, helped by a CV that includes a spell as Tom Waits's childminder. Waits's description of her music as "like going swimming in a lake at night" proves apt for her crystal vocals and the shimmering, booming backings on, say, "Whispering Light", or of more spartan, psych-folk pieces like "Murder of Birds". Hoop's a shape-shifter, though, comfortable with blues flavours or a murder ballad ("Tulips"), while her melodies and nature-inspired imagery have the relentless, angular quality of Kate Bush or Björk. An assured innovative, impressive piece of work.

The Sunday Times UK
(December 2009)

The Manchester-based Californian, whose remarkable new album, Hunting My Dress, confirms her as one of alternative folk-pop’s most arresting recent arrivals, sings like an outcast angel and writes like a restless explorer. Her songs are both ancient and modern, dark as night and suffused with light. Read more...

Mojo Magazine
(December 2009)

"Hoop remains her own invention and the appeal of her biographical details doesn't lie so much in the glitzy endorsement of Waits as in the fact they chime so perfectly with her melding of Kate Bush sensuality and Mary Poppins whimsy... On Whispering Light or Four Dreams, a winsome hoe-down line-dancing along a very wobbly line, it sounds as if English is her second - maybe third or fourth - language, her Freudian fables and oddly archaic dream-speak translated from the original palimpsest via carrier pigeon and semaphore. Yet when she shivers "I'm not a bird/I'm a murder of birds" on Murder Of Birds, a hushed, lullabying duet with Guy Garvey of Elbow (the band who encouraged Hoop to move to Manchester), it's clear that there's more substance here than fragile folk-kook feyness.

Murder ballad Tulip is Shirley Collins after a stint in a Californian writer's workshop; the pulsing Bed Across The Sea displays a tough musculature under the layers of lace dresses, while Angel Mom crashes into a red-lipped, kohl-eyed Kate Bush meltdown that sees her rivaling fellow head-dress fan Natasha Khan for cosmic oddity. "When I was a young girl I would sleep in a tall tree," she sings on the title track. It's easy to forget the official biography and believe she's right.

Friends in high places never hurt, but Jesca Hoop hits the heights all by herself. Read more...

Q Magazine
(December 2009)

Q Magazine's 50 Essential Tracks of the Month

Hunting My Dress Album Review

Word Magazine
(November 2009)

"Then there is the fantastically good Californian Jesca Hoop - she was once nanny for Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's children - who sings like a crazy woman kept sane only by melody. Love & Love Again ("The sailors all drift, and get lost in her hair/Hearts are bare, and the soldiers come home again...") is maddeningly beautiful, while Murder Of Birds ("The shape of home-baked bread, and the girl in a turned down bed/In a wake of twisted thread, from the loving words you said...") is, literally, startling."

Metro
(November 30, 2009)

Filtering vintage Tori Amos through the more sideways sensibility of Joanna Newsom, Jesca Hoop’s second album arrives fully formed on these shores (her previous British release was a limited EP). Read more...

The Independent
(November 29, 2009)

Things you need to say in any review of Hoop's debut album: she has a stint as nanny to Tom Waits' children on her CV. Things you don't: Björk and Kate Bush. That's that out of the way.

To business. Hunting My Dress is a strange and yet strangely familiar album, full of musical inventions that back Hoop's crystal-clear vocals perfectly: think Sandy Denny had she been brought up Mormon in California. Reassuring and unsettling in equal measure, Jesca Hoop might just turn out to be the Lady Gaga of freaky folk.
- Simmy Richman

Time Out London (4/5 Stars)
(December 2009)

Every now and again, something truly lovely that's not the family kitten will leap into your lap. The UK debut from US émigrée Hoop is just such a surprise. Alluringly warm it may be, but it’s far from fluffy and is utterly incapable of outstaying its welcome.

Hoop’s name might be familiar to Garveyphiles, as the Elbow man was an early champion of the gifted singer-songwriter and lends his soft-scuffed soul tones to ‘Murder of Birds’. This gorgeous record will inevitably attract comparisons with Bat For Lashes (for its glittering, pagan sensuality), My Brightest Diamond (for the crystalline operatics) and thus with Kate Bush (for the burnished beauty of some of its arrangements), but Hoop’s roots are in the folk round-singing tradition rather than in pop, and her spirit and vigour are very much her own. ‘LA is hot as fuck,’ she observes on ‘Bed Across the Sea’, which suggests CocoRosie backing Tom Waits (for whom Hoop once nannied) in the Australian Outback, and when she sings ‘the shape of home-baked bread’, you can almost smell it. Devastatingly delicious.
- Sharon O’Connell

The Times (4/5 Stars)
(November 28, 2009)

It’s an American story — she got her harmonies from the Mormons, her leg-up from Tom Waits (she used to look after his kids) — but Hoop, now based in Manchester, has an unusual grasp of British folk music. Tulip is a dark Irish jig with a prickly bed of synth drums where the bodhran should be, while the title track is a fluttering Scottish ballad. She even does the accents, but any tweeness is avoided by surprising turns of melody and angry choruses. A new sound that is both studied and inspired.
- Kate Mossman

The Guardian
(November 27, 2009)

"Tom Waits's babysitter" seems a fairly arresting way to describe a new singer-songwriter. In Californian Jesca Hoop's case, it's bizarrely true. Thankfully, that's not the most interesting thing about her. Hunting My Dress is a nine-song collection of beautiful, pastoral compositions that sounds as if it could be the soundtrack for an autumnal Scandinavian vampire movie. Natural elements rear their head throughout – in the lyrics and literally, as in the case of The Kingdom, which features twittering birdsong. It's good enough to compare to the more wholesome elements of The White Album, Joanna Newsom's Ys and Elbow's quieter moments (Guy Garvey actually lends subtle backing vocals to the gingerbread-sweet Murder of Birds). Enchanting in parts, Hunting My Dress sounds like the sprouting of a wondrous new talent.
- Will Dean

Uncut Magazine
(November 2009)

Raised a Mormon and championed by Tom Waits (she worked as nanny to his kids), Hoop’s music dazzles with a similarly contrary set of influences. In a voice that ranges from gentle, crystalline charm to edgy intensity, she’s in turn playful (ìWhispering Lightî), bluesy (ìFour Dreamsî), haunting (ìAngel Momî), folky (ìMurder Of Birdsî, on which she duets with Elbow’s Guy Garvey). What prevents this all from becoming a mish-mash of textures is Hoop’s single-minded passion, which lends a self-assured cohesion to her diversity.
- Nigel Williamson

Kruger Magazine
(December 2009)

Less is more, according to Jesca Hoop, and judging by her stunning debut album, we’re inclined to agree. Recorded on borrowed studio time at ‘odd’ hours, the result is one that is only made more bewitching by the unusual circumstances in which it was produced. 2009 might be the year of the woman but Jesca Hoop’s exceptional talent should last a lot longer than some industry trend.
- RD

Diva
(December 2009)

In a fair world, Jesca Hoop would be bigger than Florence and the Machine. A Californian singer-songwriter with one album already under her belt, she writes beautifully-crafted songs that fuse the sensual and the spiritual. Recorded in LA earlier this year, Hunting My Dress is a quietly magical record that showcases her unique and versatile vocals. One minute crooning about her dreams and visions, the next she’s soaring and swooping over a haunting murder ballad. There are elements of folk, Americana and bluegrass but the driving force is emotive, pop with imaginative melodies, shuffling percussion and intricate vocal harmonies.

Indie Information
(December 2009)

Another week, another oddball folkie – but past work as nanny to Tom Waits’s children barely touches on Jesca Hoop’s singularities. Dress flutters by on dream-like tangents, alighting on Kate Bush circa The Dreaming, wonky blues, heart-rending hymnals (“Angel Mom”) and murder ballads alike. Quirky doesn’t fit, sheer force of passion and personality rendering Hoop’s free-form digressions bright and utterly beguiling.
- Kevin Harley

Grazia.. (November 30, 2009)

Meet folk-pop’s latest darling. Jesca Hoop’s album recounts her bizarre younger years: raised by Mormon parents, she ran off to live in the American wilderness before becoming music legend Tom Waits’ live-in nanny. Kooky, pitch-perfect folk.

The Observer
(November 15, 2009)

A Californian resident in Manchester, Hoop comes hotly tipped, helped by a CV that includes a spell as Tom Waits's childminder. Waits's description of her music as "like going swimming in a lake at night" proves apt for her crystal vocals and the shimmering, booming backings on, say, "Whispering Light", or of more spartan, psych-folk pieces like "Murder of Birds". Hoop's a shape-shifter, though, comfortable with blues flavours or a murder ballad ("Tulips"), while her melodies and nature-inspired imagery have the relentless, angular quality of Kate Bush or Bjork. An assured innovative, impressive piece of work.
- Neil Spencer

Glasswerk “Releasing her second album, the former Tom Waits nanny and folk traditionalist has taken a step forward into enchanted midnight grounds with “Hunting My Dress.” Read more...

Music Week's The Panel
(October 31st, 2009)

Music Week
(September 2009)

Club Uncut Review
(July 2009)
"I think there’s something both theatrical and elemental to Hoop’s songs that remind me, fleetingly, of Kate Bush or Bjork. Her voice shifts into different registers, while the lyrics frequently mention skies, rivers, storms and winds’ or enchanted places where the boundaries shift and the dead might come back to life or animals talk. But, please, there’s nothing twee or precious here. She’s a great between-song raconteur, bantering about the collective nouns for birds with the audience, or how she lost her dress and car keys at Glastonbury, or opening “Intelligentactile 101” with “This is a children’s story. I heard it from my nephew. When my sister was pregnant. Except he turned out to be a girl. So I had some explaining to do.” Read more..

Uncut
(May 2009)

LA Weekly
(April 2009)-Of all the fine singer-songwriters who've come out of the Hotel Café, Jesca Hoop might be the most wildly inventive. Her 2007 major-label debut, Kismet (Red Ink/Columbia), is more than just the usual assortment of pop-folk songs, because it's layered with wonderfully mesmerizing arrangements and evocatively arty lyrics. Read more...

The SF Examiner
(February 5, 2009)-Folk Singer demonstrates her survival skills: Avant-folk songstress Jesca Hoop [is] back with the self-released “Kismet Acoustic” featuring the duet “Murder of Birds” with Elbow’s Guy Garvey. The Examiner recently chatted with Hoop, who’s also known for her survival skills. Read more...

Guardian UK/The Observer
(January 18, 2009)-The 20 Best New Acts of 2009: California-based Hoop used to be Tom Waits’ nanny and Elbow’s Guy Garvey enjoyed her folk-rock enough to take her on tour. Download: Murder of Birds

London Tour Dates Magazine
(December 12, 2008)

The Sun's "Single of the Week" (UK)
(November 28, 2008)

Maxim (UK)
(January 2009)

DJ (UK)
(December 2008)

The Sunday Times "Breaking Act" (UK)
(November 29, 2008)

Time Out London (UK)
(November 26, 2008)

Uncut (UK)
(November 18, 2008) I’ve been playing Hoop’s “Kismet Acoustic” EP quite a lot of late... The first track here is the best and, promisingly, the newest one she’s written (the others apparently had fleshed-out treatments on an album, “Kismet”, from 2007, that I’ve never come across). It’s called “Murder Of Birds”, features Guy Garvey on discreet, low-level backing vocals, and melodically moves in the same territory as Kate Bush’s “Army Dreamers”; Joanna Newsom is a plausible comparison, too, though Hoop seems more earthly than transported. There’s something about her guitar playing here that’s oddly reminiscent of Newsom’s harp, as well – a certain gem-like shimmer that sounds like a kora at times. It’s lovely, anyway, and there’s enough else on “Kismet Acoustic” – notably “Seed Of Wonder” (more Newsom allusions here, perhaps) – to make Hoop worth following more intensively next year. - John Mulvey Read more...

Music Week's "Panel" (UK)
(October 25, 2008)-Endorsements from the likes of Tom Waits and Guy Garvey persuaded us to give Jesca Hoop a go, and she definitely didn’t disappoint. Not at all like a lot of other hiccupping folk-pop songtrels around, Hoops’ vaudeville style is fantastical and really engaging. -Chris Parkin (Time Out)

Time Out London (UK)
(May 29, 2008)

LAist.com
You might recall that right around Labor Day we celebrated KCRW's 30th anniversary of Morning Becomes Eclectic with a series of interviews with a handful of their on-air personalities. Today we are lucky enough to get the Top 10 list of Nic Harcourt's top albums of 2007. We are very happy to see that he's just as down with local kids Sea Wolf and Great Northern as we are. Not only that, but atop his list is another local girl, Jesca Hoop! Read more...

LA Times
Maybe it's her small-town upbringing in Sonoma County, or maybe it's her singing voice -- which sounds like a cherub caught in a light breeze -- but people want to know whether moving to Los Angeles somehow threatened Jesca Hoop. Read more...

Paste Magazine
(October 2007) – 4 to Watch feature excerpt: Why She’s Worth Watching - Her debut Kismet feels like a feral child emerging from the Top 40 forest, brimming with loopy, acrobatic vocals, ethereal off-kilter melodies and lovably eccentric lyrics. Kickoff single “Summertime” even features a crow cawing along amid the yodelly fluff.
- Tom Lanham Read more...

Prefix Magazine
(September 12, 2007) - The title of Jesca Hoop's debut album, Kismet, could easily refer to the twists of fate that led to its existence. Certainly it seems like destiny that Hoop would land a five-year tenure as nanny to the children of Tom Waits, whose influence is spattered generously across Kismet. Another bit of good fortune came in 2004, when Waits's publisher, Lionel Conway sent a demo version of "Seed of Wonder" to the highly influential radio host Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles station KCRW, who helped make the song one of the most requested in the station's history. Without an official release to her name, Hoop was tapped to open for the Polyphonic Spree during its summer 2007 tour. Read more...

NY Magazine
(September 3-10, 2007) – Precious Tom Waits-approved singer from California delivers inventive, fantastical folk-pop poems.

Liner Notes Magazine
(September 2007) - Kismet, Jesca Hoop’s unpredictable debut album will keep you on your toes. Read more...

Filter Magazine
(Fall 2007) - Hoop's music is that of modern fairytales and skewered folk stories. Raised in a Mormon community, fate landed her as the babysitter to Tom Waits' children, thus further encouraging her to perform. The result of these experiences is a debut album of both otherworldly allusion and modern-day observance. "Money" has dense, bulky rhythms with a melody that trails like stardust whilst laying shame on artists' willingness to sell out for hard, cold cash. What is most enrapturing about this album is Hoop's voice. Although her vocals are glossed with clear, vibrant production, it's her natural ability that brings her stories to life. Reminiscent of Bjork, there are intriguing hints of Scandinavian influence in Hoop's voice, but when employed within her melodies, she unleashes her art to a devastating affect. Kismet is an unusual and endearing collection of songs, and Hoop is unforgettable in her beauty and charisma. Grade: 86% - Jonathan Falcone

Slant Magazine
Kismet is a fitting title for singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop's debut album. The song "Seed of Wonder," which fell into the hands of an influential L.A. radio tastemaker by way of Hoop's employer and mentor Tom Waits (she worked as his kids' nanny for a spell), is a kaleidoscopic assemblage of bridges and verses that overlap and repeat, recounting Hoop's creative journey from "stagnant well," in which spiders fantastically strummed their webs and called her to join them, to prosperous "tapped spring." The song, however, comes too early in the album; it's the kind of paramount burst that would play more satisfying as a climactic piece rather than a wellspring for what follows (like the equally powerful but more modestly arranged "Enemy" and "Love is All We Have," an ode to New Orleans that coasts on the sounds of a creaking boat and a rousing melody of "Level me now/Love is all we have").
Read more...

Before meeting Waits, Hoop grew up in a strict Mormon home where MTV was banned and singing murder ballads and church hymns in four-part harmony was the norm, the effect of which can be heard in the bundles of vocal overdubs throughout Kismet. Hoop's lyrics unravel like free verse, and her voice shifts from alpine almost-yodeling to a deeper, sultry register (often all in the same song), so it's no surprise to learn that she counts the likes of Kate Bush and Björk as influences. "Silverscreen" finds the singer in a sort of film screening purgatory where home movies are shown ("Gates of Heaven/There is me on the silverscreen/I hope they did good editing"), while "Money" addresses the challenge of maintaining artistic integrity in the face of "cheddar" ("Where go the misfits on the fringe/When the edges are all rounded out?"). Despite signing with a major label, Hoop has still managed to record an offbeat yet accessible album filled with carnivalesque flourishes, and it seems her inner freak has been anything but dulled.

Laist.com LAist.com interviews KCRW’s Nic Harcourt (September 3, 2007) - LAist: KCRW and MBE in particular are well known for giving new and unsigned artists their first airplay. Of those who you've debuted, which was your favorite (whether or not they were everyone else's fave)? Harcourt: Damien Rice and Jesca Hoop are two of my favorites. Jesca has her first full length a new album coming out soon and we started playing her years ago after I got her demo via Tom Waits.
Read more...

Zink Magazine
(September 2007) – That’s no typo. Her name is Jesca, not Jessica, and her debut album, Kismet, (Sony) is as offbeat as she is. Not only does Kismet sound drastically different from song to song – incorporating elements of folk, pop, jazz, country, blues and rock – there are also frequent and rather surprising tonal shifts within the songs themselves. A delightful mixture of Edie Brickell and Fiona Apple, Hoop turns every track into a prize-filled box of Cracker Jacks with her off-kilter guitar riffs and kooky keyboards. You never know what you’re going to get, but that’s part of the fun. Ease into the ride with sensationally quirky standouts “Silverscreen” and “Seed of Wonder.”

Entertainment Weekly
(August 22, 2007) – About “Intelligentactile 101”: This NorCal newcomer’s debut CD, Kismet (out Sept. 18), comes with an elliptical endorsement from no less a musical legend than Tom Waits, whose children she once nannied: “Jesca’s music,” he offers in a press release, “is like a four-sided coin.” (Sure, Tom, whatever you say.) Hoop shares some intriguing imagery of her own on this standout track, where she crows about “swinging from the stars/On an umbilical cord.” What does it all mean? With a melody this bewitching, you might not care.
Read more...

Filter Magazine
(July 25, 2007) - The El Rey Theatre was turned into a recruitment rally of sorts at the sold-out Polyphonic Spree show with special guest Jesca Hoop presented by KCRW July 18.

The troops were rallied in the theater by opener Jesca Hoop who beautifully warmed the stage with her enchanting songs promptly at 9 p.m. Coifed with a fur hat, tousled brunette hair and a simple T-shirt paired with jeans, her gentle vocals filled the room captivating the audience with her delicate tales for just under 30 minutes. Jesca made the most of a cramped stage already set for the 20-something members of the Polyphonic Spree and performed her songs with a modest set up producing a sound that was anything but.

Her performance elicited resemblances to a stripped down Bjork or even Mirah, yet still all completely her own as she effortlessly sang her well-crafted songs that can only be sung so true from experience. Hoop’s own tale is fanciful in itself, discovered by the legendary Tom Wait’s as she was working as his nanny and living out of a van in California, Hoop has just completed her forthcoming debut album, Kismet, to be released by Red Ink Sept. 18 and yet she’s already quickly becoming KCRW’s darling and performing to sold-out audiences on the West coast.

Filter Grade: 95% Jesca Hoop’s ‘Kismet’ is one of Filter’s Weekly Picks Week of 08.06.07

- Jess Peregoy
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All Music Guide
Santa Monica fell under Jesca Hoop's spell in autumn 2006, making her "Seed of Wonder" the most requested song in her local radio station's history. Hoop re-recorded it for her debut Kismet album, with assistance from Stewart Copeland, whose complex, ever-shifting rhythms enhance the number's uniqueness, sliding it toward hip-hop here, prodding it into a Native American dance there. Hoop is the master of such musical shifts and slides, and Kismet beautifully highlights her constantly altering perspectives. "Out the Back Door," for instance, swings dramatically from hip-hop to blues before leaping unexpectedly into drum'n'bass, while Hoop twirls her vocal styles in even more directions. The blues edge a clutch more tracks to wonderful effect, yet the singer is equally at home with folk, as she beautifully displays across the dreamy "Enemy" and the sublime "House in Heaven." The latter was lyrically inspired by a dramatic Chinese legend, and musically gives a twist of the East to British folk before sweeping into a '40s-styled jazz revue. The elegant, sophisticated "Love and Love Again" takes that latter style to its logical conclusion with a glamorous Hollywood musical arrangement, as Hoop swells and deepens her vocals in homage to Judy Garland. "Love Is All We Have" is a bit less successful, the mostly acoustic backing haunting, but her lyrics seeming a bit trite when themed to the man-made catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina. Much better is "Money," which instantly evokes Liza Minnelli's classic but moves the scene and theme from a Berlin café to the L.A. music industry, albeit musically via a South American tango club. "Summertime," a harmony and harmonics-drenched piece of confectionery, is lovely, but one of the least interesting songs on this enchanting and challenging album. It is, of course, the label's pick for first single. There are so many more fascinating songs within that it almost pales in comparison, for this is a set to leave one breathless with wonder. - by Jo-Ann Greene

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