Joan as Police Woman – The Classic

There are times, as on the Motown-fuelled Holy City, a breathless, ribald devotional (“Yeah, I’m ready to get up on your wailing wall!”), when this fourth album from Joan Wasser feels like the natural successor to Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Elsewhere, particularly when the initial pace shifts from bustling soul-pop to twilight balladry, its distinct tone helps differentiate the pair.

The Classic is defined by a smartly pitched and, at times, intriguingly self-aware optimism. For Wasser, unlike many of Winehouse’s defining moments, love, for now at least, is largely a winning game. Her lyrics remain a joy; storied, soulful and true. “And the song that we’re singing seems like it’s always been sung,” she purrs on the slow-burn title track. Here’s an artist we thought we knew, emerging reborn and opening a window on a life that feels deeply, properly lived. She shares it in ever more remarkable fashion.