Joan of Arc - Boo Human
I love Joan of Arc’s How Memory Works, which I remember I listened to constantly shortly after its 1998 release, when albums from the likes of Cat Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, Smog, OP8, Tortoise, and Gastr Del Sol were screaming into head space and garnering enough of the other stuff to become classics. On the outside, Radiohead and Bjork were loved without a furtive glance over the shoulder. Even Shania Twain’s Come On Over VH1-ed the late 90’s.
How Memory Works had a sort of insectivorous sinkhole approach to popular music, and hidden in the pit, waiting to thrust, was Tim Kinsella’s parent-angering voice, sinews twisted into noose-rope.
“This Life Cumulative”, How Memory Works’s self-flagellatory credo, is sectioned and stored on a nearby hard drive, the victim of a long-ago afternoon of careful - perhaps obsessive - listening. I chopped it up into pieces so that I could listen to them in whatever order I chose, triggering them with a drum machine.
I enjoy that old Joan of Arc album. Here is a newer Joan of Arc album. Apparently they have a dozen or so. Do I need a new Joan of Arc album? After a first listen to this, which upon reflection may be missing the very parent-angering noose-rope indicative of a new Joan of Arc album, I remain uncertain.
1 year ago
