Joan and the Sailors - Mermaid

  by Andy Cassidy

published: 26 / 6 / 2012

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Joan and the Sailors began life as, if you’ll pardon the pun, just Joan. Joan Sellers’ prodigious talent enabled her to gather a group of first class musicians around her to complement her gorgeous vocals and superb guitar playing. 'Mermaid', the group’s first album, has the sound of a band who have been in the business for years; there is a maturity and depth to the music, qualities which are becoming more and more rare in these days of banal and instantly obsolete pop. The album’s opening track, the playfully titled 'Silly Loving Lovesong for Humble Gentleman', clearly marks out the path that the album is taking. With Sellers’ vocal somewhere between Bjork and Beth Gibbons and a backing track which is both precise and driving, the song sounds like part-Portishead and part Earth (listen to the guitar on Earth’s The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull). As an opening to the album it is particularly effective as it perfectly illustrates the band’s ability to blend powerful music with a breathy, sensual vocal. 'Time of No Time' is a relatively straightforward song which highlights just how well the band can play. With its pared down arrangement, there is nowhere to hide but the minimal background merely serves to emphasise how good Sellers’ vocals and the band’s superb compositional skills. Sellers is far from a one-trick pony. While many of her vocals on the album are gently understated, on 'Bound To' she really opens up and takes her vocal to the next level – a sort of Liz Phair meets trip-hop style which sounds simply fantastic. On 'Ou Es-Tu?' (a Serge Gainsbourg meets shoegaze style duet featuring Sellers and Etienne Hilfiker) Sellers opens the track with her best Theremin impersonation, while the understated Jeff Buckley style guitar opening of 'Better Off Dead' again allows the melody and the vocal to take centre stage and again show off the band’s songwriting skills. Throughout the course of the album, the instrumental passages are every bit as good as vocal sections with each song perfectly arranged to suit its lyrics and Sellers’ vocal. This is an accomplished album, especially when one considers that Joan and the Sailors have only been together for two years. Musically inventive and precise, the album also boasts great vocal performances and some fantastic lyrics. Joan and the Sailors are definitely a band to watch out for in the future.

Track Listing:-

1 Silly Loving Lovesong For The Humble Gentleman
2 Jailheart
3 Time Of No Time
4 Bound To
5 Rain In My Chest
6 Où Es-Tu?
7 Break Of Dawn
8 Better Off Dead
9 Again
10 Out The Door
11 Close To The Nightsky
12 Mermaid

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/joanandthesailors
https://twitter.com/joanandsailors
https://www.youtube.com/user/JoanAndTheSailors

Label Links:-

http://www.littlejig.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/littlejigrecords
https://twitter.com/littlejig
https://www.facebook.com/littlejigrec

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