'Real Life Evolution' Out June 12 via Reveal Records; NYC Shows Already Sold Out
Twenty years is a long time to live with an album. Long enough to understand it differently, play it differently, mean it differently. That's exactly what Joan Wasser — known professionally as Joan As Police Woman since 2004 — has done with Real Life Evolution, a full reimagining of her 2006 debut album arriving June 12 via Reveal Records.
This isn't a remaster or a deluxe edition. Joan re-recorded the entire album with new arrangements shaped by years of playing these songs live, featuring a remarkable cast: Iggy Pop (who she also tours with as a member of his band), Krystle Warren, Tony Allen, Thomas Bartlett, and a full ensemble of players who helped define the original sound. The latest preview is a version of "Eternal Flame" that she describes as starting from "a beat Parker Kindred developed nearly a decade ago" — a song she originally wrote "about the impossibility of being someone's 'everything'" that has taken on new meaning over time.
Joan's credentials don't need much padding: The Times called her "the coolest woman in pop," The Economist called her "one of the 21st century's best musicians," and her collaborator list reads like a who's-who of adventurous music — Lou Reed, Anohni, Meshell Ndegeocello, Beck, David Byrne, Rufus Wainwright, Damon Albarn (who invited her onto the Gorillaz' Song Machine). She's released ten albums of original material and two covers records, and she's still doing the thing nobody else does quite like her.
The NYC June shows at Joe's Pub are already sold out (two of the three dates). The Real Life Anniversary Tour continues through Europe in November, hitting London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Budapest, Rome and more.