Songwriter’s songwriter, Jesca Hoop, is back with a spellbinding new single, ‘Lyre Bird’, ahead of her latest album, Order of Romance out on 16th September. Discovered by Tom Waits and taken on tour by Peter Gabriel, it was a phone call from Elbow‘s Guy Garvey that saw her move from California to Manchester, UK, where she continued to create her enigmatic compositions. Tom Waits, described her, “like a four-sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night”.
‘Lyre Bird’ is the final cut form Jesca Hoop’s forthcoming album, Order of Romance, and just like the Lyre Bird, the delicacy and intricacy covers the teeth at the heart of this new song, as Jesca looks back to he home country and sees the effects of intense division. She explains:
“2020, 2021 were sad sad years for America. Certain influences blooming. The Pendulum swinging. Divisive forces at work. Irreparable Damage. The myths growing. Tugged between the powers, we have limited time and we have to choose in which faith we act.”
Jesca Hoop also took time to record an intimate live version of ‘Lyre Bird,’ filmed in her adopted city of Manchester, which you can watch here, a long-distance view of Jesca Hoop’s home country:
Last month, Jesca Hoop announced her forthcoming album Order of Romance with the premiere of, ‘Hatred Has a Mother,’ on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 Music show. Out on 16th September, Order of Romance is Hoop’s most intricate and finely balanced album to date, one that draws on classic song writing, recalling Suzanne Vega, Kimya Dawson and anything from Gershwin to Paul Simon, creating something that is unmistakably Jesca Hoop.
Like a lot of tour-ready musicians in 2020, Hoop suddenly found that she had unexpected time on her hands, so she turned her work inwards. As it was for many people, those housebound days were some of the most tumultuous of her life, and she found the discipline and balance of a daily writing routine essential in coping with the unknown.
‘Order of Romance‘ is not a journaling of the last two years; it is a deep dive into craft. As Jesca says “I set out to mature as a writer, to further clarity my voice and stance, through melodies and phrases only I can construct. Order of Romance feels like every person, character, or artist, I ever was over the many seasons of my life was handed an instrument to play across the songs.”
In the summer of 2021, Hoop once again ventured south from her adopted home of Manchester to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), her collaborator for 2019’s Stonechild. The result is a fruitful marriage of song craft and arrangement, brimming with a cinematic charm and lyrical wit that signify a new chapter full of new life for an artist who knows her mind, her heart and voice well enough to trust them in uncharted territory.
Order of Romance is a complete work that benefits from close attention and active listening. Its apparent lightness of touch belies a serious intent. Themes of empathy and friendship, intertwine with a clear eyed and moralistic poetry on subjects such as gun control, religious and political cults, and climate change.
Speaking of the album Hoop says,
“I seek out reflection and resolve in my songs. I find out who I am in a sense. For a few minutes, I can exist in nature at my full potential, saying just what I mean, in balance, in awe, in wonder and in full force. As a moral agent, a mode I can’t seem to avoid, my writing is time taken to observe and ask questions. I find humour in our predicament. I find danger in the reckoning. I find faith despite our sorry state and I feel connection when I draw it through my voice. I stand my ground and through the music and point inevitably towards compassion”.
Order of Romance is available for preorder now here and Jesca Hoop will tour across the UK and Europe later this year.
Headline Tour Dates:
October
29 Rootzz Festival, Breda
30 Amsterdam, Bitterzoet
November
01 Copenhagen, Ideal Bar
02 Hamburg, Nochtspeicher
03 Berlin, Privatclub
05 Paris, Larchipel
08 Zurich, Rote Fabrik
09 Schorndorf, Manufaktur
10 Macon, Matilda
24 Edinburgh, Caves
25 Gateshead, Sage 2
26 Sheffield, Upper Chapel
27 Chester, St Mary’s
29 Bangor, NI, The Court House
December
01 Galway, Roisin Dubh
02 Limerick, Kasbah Social Club
03 Dublin, Workmans Club Cellar
04 Leeds, Howard Assembly Rooms
06 Birmingham, Glee Club
07 Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion
08 Cambridge Storey’s Field Centre
09 London, EartH Theatre
17 Manchester, Halle St. Peter’s
