Send "Joan as Police Woman " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Unlike Joan Wasser's first two efforts as Police Woman, The Deep Field doesn't feature any CD-sticker-worthy cameos from folks like Rufus Wainwright or Antony Hegarty. That's not to disparage her current collection of collaborators, which includes former Shudder to Think guitarist Nathan Larson and troubador Joseph Arthur, as well as producer Bryce Goggin, the go-to guy for most of Matador Records' mid-90s output. You still get the sense she's trying to make the type of mature and sophisticated pop music that can stand comfortably with these and other like-minded contemporaries. Unfortunately, while she aims for such critically acclaimed heights, her shots often land in a middle-of-the-road, adult-contemporary wasteland.On a purely musical level, The Deep Field handles its business in a professional manner. The songs can settle into a uninspired groovy shuffle at times, "The Magic" being the key offender. And there are elements that tend to over-announce their presence at the cost of drowning out everything else-- usually it's the faux-funky organ, but the background singers making like human didgeridoos on "Human Condition" deserve a special mention. Still, it's hard to fully disregard a songwriter who can conjure up the haunting Talk Talk-like ambiance of "Flash", or gracefully send off "The Action Man" on a bed of strings, woodwinds, and percussion. It's when Wasser puts her voice front and center that The Deep Field collapses in on itself. Wasser trades in all sorts of vagaries and generalizations, taking an entire track to convey an idea that could be succinctly expressed in a single verse. If Wasser were a stronger vocalist, she might be able to get by with this sort of shoddy writing; put these songs in Adele's golden throat, and they'd probably be chart-toppers. Wasser's voice is a decidely more subtle instrument. It has character, but its wispy, semi-sultry charm isn't robust enough to sell an outright dog like "Chemmie", a shameless slow jam that requires the bombastic pipes of Larson's former bandmate, Craig Wedren, to make it even remotely palatable. It's sadly appropriate that this misfire of a song-- about a couple with undeniable chemistry-- epitomizes an album that comes off as hopelessly inert....full text |
| Bbc |
| The Deep Field opens with a song called Nervous, wherein a tribal field recording yields to squalls of guitar, an airy drumbeat and Joan Wasser’s declaration of "I want you to fall in love with me". It is an assured, confident start – indeed, it is anything but nervous – that sets the scene perfectly for what Wasser has called her "most open, joyous" record to date: a flawed, fascinating piece of work that takes its title from a distant pocket of space and concerns itself with love and impulsiveness amid countless aspects of contemporary life. A denser affair than 2008’s To Survive, it fizzes and bursts with plush instrumentation, augmenting her trademark keys with strings, horns and electric guitar in a manner that occasionally threatens to drown out her smooth delivery. Certainly, it doesn’t make much sense at first, lacking the impact of that album’s tear-stained confessionals or the sense of arrival that greeted debut set Real Life. But the ambition present reveals itself gradually, repeated listens opening up these long, sometimes languorous songs. Wasser has always been far more interesting than a cursory listen to her records might suggest, the idiosyncratic banter of her live shows hinting at a strangeness that suits The Deep Field very well. Found-sound collages and studio chatter colour the album as it segues from one song to the next, rarely faltering. Lead single The Magic lopes along on a sleek riff that finds Wasser lost in a maze of her own making; The Action Man builds, builds and builds for the entirety of its five-minute run; Chemmie dwells on lust in sweet falsetto not a million miles away from Prince; I Was Everyone makes for a bracing finish; Forever and a Year is just gorgeous. Only Human Condition slows proceedings somewhat, an exercise in laid-back soul that veers a little too far towards the inconsequential....full text |
| Guardian |
| Joan Wasser's 2008 album To Survive was a sombre, insular record that dealt, in harrowing detail, with the passing of her mother. Its follow-up, The Deep Field – with a title referencing distant clusters of stars and cover art that's more open and welcoming – is her self-described "joyous record". Gone, for the most part, are the haunting piano ballads, and in their place are looser musical expositions that display her deft songcraft. Opener Nervous chugs along nicely, all guitar scratches and organ fills, before the melody shifts slightly ahead of the chorus and it becomes almost unbearably lovely. First single The Magic and Kiss the Specifics ("yes I'm in love") both recall the dreamy wonder of her debut, Real Life. Unfortunately, while Wasser's featherlight voice suits the slower songs, it has a tendency to sound slightly one-dimensional on the over-fussy bigger numbers, and there are moments when it drifts too close to polite MOR....full text |
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