Joan As Police Woman returns with her new album Cover Two out on May 1st 2020 [+ Limited Edition Red Vinyl LP]. This is Joan’s second album reinterpreting songs by other artists and once again, the choices are unpredictable and intriguing.

Cover Two Tracklisting:
Kiss (Prince)
Spread (Outkast)
Under Control (The Strokes)
Not The Way (Cass McCombs)
I Keep Forgettin’ (Michael Macdonald)
Life’s What You Make It (Talk Talk)
Out of Time (Blur)
On The Beach (Neil Young)
There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs)
Running (Gil Scott-Heron)

Joan had plans for a long European tour following the album release, performing as a trio with Parker Kindred (drums) and Jacob Silver (bass), unsurprisingly those dates are likely to be postponed - information when we have it.

The ‘Cover Two’ tour was due to end with a show at London at The Union Chapel on Tuesday June 16th. This show is SOLD OUT but very likely to be postponed too.

Meanwhile Joan has contributed to another covers album, ‘Songs For Australia’ released to raise money for bushfire relief charities. Joan’s cover of Gotye’s ‘Heart’s A Mess’ features alongside tracks from The National, Kurt Vile, Martha Wainwright and others.

Sunday Times - ‘Sensational’ // Uncut – ‘This is breathtakingly good music’ // The Times - ‘The coolest woman in pop’ // Mojo – ‘full of meditative beauty…ravishing and lovelorn’ // The Guardian -‘a voice so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone else’s seem ordinary and mundane’ // Q - ‘Beautiful’ // The Economist - ‘Joan As Police Woman is one of the 21st century’s best musicians’

JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN ‘COVER TWO’ - Track by Track by Joan:
1. Kiss (Prince)
2. Spread (Outkast)
3. Under Control (The Strokes)
4. Not The Way (Cass McCombs)
5. Keep Forgetting (Michael Macdonald)
6. Life’s What You Make It (Talk Talk)
7. Out of Time (Blur)
8. On The Beach (Neil Young)
9. There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs)
10. Running (Gil Scott-Heron)

“I began working on this second covers album ever since the release of the first one 11 years ago! I’ve been performing “Kiss” by Prince and my version of “Out of Time” by Blur throughout last year’s Joanthology Tour and finished Cover Two as soon as I returned home this winter. Recreating existing songs is a gratifying creative challenge for me, especially with songs I adore. I start with the question, ‘WHY, exactly, do I love this song?’ I take those elements and reform them, sometimes removing much of the remaining material to refocus them through new glasses. I re-harmonize the chords, radically change the feel, or shift the hook or the phrasing to rebuild the composition.

For “Spread” by Outkast, I invited my friend and musical genius, Meshell Ndegeocello, to recite André’s words and play bass with relentless swagger. I beatboxed the drums, had Parker play live over the tracks, and added the masterful trumpeter, Cole Kamen-Green.

I always heard The Strokes’ “Under Control” as a classic r&b song dressed up as a Strokes song. I reframed it the way I heard it naturally and added my best Brian May guitar playing.

“Not The Way” is from Cass McCombs’ first EP. I’d listened to the song for years before I realized what the lyrics were. The verse describes being judgmental and difficult which leads into the chorus, which blithely sings “That’s not the way to make friends.” Effortlessly humorous without being funny.

“Keep Forgetting” by Michael McDonald is a song that lyrically tears me up. It felt like a terribly sad song dressed up in a slick untouchable suit. I recreated it as the heartbroken ballad inside that suit.

Talk Talk’s, “Life’s What You Make It,” is a mantra for me. I sang it with the incredible vocalist Justin Hicks, whose singing floors me. The endlessly creative Thomas Bartlett, plays the syncopated piano. I’ve been working on this one for some years now and then was invited to perform in the Talk Talk tribute that happened in Nov ’19, at Royal Festival Hall, which included many of the musicians who collaborated with Mark Hollis. A great honor.

How to choose a Blur song? I went with one that made me cry every time I heard it. “Out Of Time” features Jacob Silver playing gorgeous bass flourishes that wrap around the sublime lyrics.

Neil Young’s “On The Beach” is a favorite of mine. I used sparse piano to re-harmonize and create a shifty underpinning for the uneasy feel of the lyrics. I was lucky enough to record this track in Buenos Aires at the world renowned Ion Studios, known as “the Abbey Road of Tango.” The studio retains the vibe of its beginnings in 1960, when greats like Astor Piazzolla recorded there. It’s full of ghosts and so is this track.

You may recognize “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from the “Grease” soundtrack, but it was not written specifically for the film. I crafted it in Flamingos-style (doo-wop group from the 1950’s who used heavy reverb to create their sound) with Parker, Justin, and I sharing the many tracks of backup vocals.

The inception of Gil Scott-Heron’s, “Running,” began when I prepared it for the GSH tribute show at London’s, The Roundhouse, in 2016. I took his classic spoken word piece and created chords and melody; a song around the poem. Shahzad Ismaily added bass and Jim White finishes it off with his stormy drums.”