Singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop trades in the unsettling and the turbulent, both sonically and subject matter-wise — her truths can be hard to confront, but also impossible to turn away from. Famously getting her start working as Tom Waits’ nanny (as she nurtured the children, her boss helped nurture her songwriting), as the years have passed Hoop’s indie folk sound has continued to twist and grow. Hoop has long been known for boldly tackling difficult subject matters: her 2019 album Stonechild was heralded as an unflinching meditation of motherhood and her latest, last year’s Order of Romance pushes that muddy exploration of womanhood even further, with Hoop creating a highly quirky and hypnotic soundtrack, using her voice and guitar with an bewildering percussive urgency. Alternating between the anthemic and the intimate, this latest song cycle is a delightfully disorienting ride, but once you immerse yourself in Hoop’s world you won’t want to get off as she reveals her secret knowledge about the complicated and oft unsavoury nature of love and sex.

Biography by Elizabeth Chorney Booth