Joe Sent Me

“Joe Sent Me” is the first Vanessa Daou album since 2001’s “Make You Love”; it is also her first record not to be produced by Peter Daou. It sounds both familiar and very, very different to her previous work. The voice is different; less sweet, less processed, more raw and with a slightly rough edge. The sound is very different too, and that’s a good thing.

The Peter Daou production, so revolutionary in its sensual sound on 1994’s “Zipless” hasn’t evolved much. The slightly more daring excursions into jazz and drum’n'bass on “Dear John Coltrane,” were gone from “Make You Love”. While “Make You Love” undoubtedly perfected the electronic sound of the Daous, it was barely daring sonically; tracks like “Show Me” or “Juliette” could have been anyone’s, “Aphrodite” or “A Little Bit of Pain” would have sounded perfectly in place on seven years old “Zipless”.

“Joe Sent Me” is dramatically different. There is jazz, and there is electronica, and there is Vanessa’s voice, but that’s about all that connects those records. “Hurricanes” reminds me of Air’s “Virgin Suicides”. “True” is Vanessa’s voice and acoustic guitar — SHOCKING!!1! “Black And White” sounds like some strange collaboration between Goldfrapp and a jazz band. “Life Force”, incredibly intrinsic sonically (this is very much a headphones record) and “Manifesto” wouldn’t fit on any previous Daou record — and I suspect that’s why it opens the album, a true manifesto of a new sound. “Love Lives In The Dark” sounds like Massive Attack (and oh my, the thought of Vanessa working with Massive Attack makes me ecstatic). This is very much a new record by an artist who hasn’t said her final word.

The sexiness and sensuality, always present in Vanessa’s records, take a new dimension here; she isn’t the androgynous girl who sung “Sunday Afternoons” anymore — she is, very much, a very grown up woman. The girl is still present in the songs like “Heart Of Wax”; but it is a very different person who wrote “Joe Sent Me”. “And don’t be thinking/you’re the only one/who knows” she warns, and shivers go down my spine. “Here’s the pen you gave me/to write my poetry/I said I’d give it back to you the day you stop inspiring me/Here’s the glass, it’s empty” begins “Black And White” and, again, the thrill is almost physical. Those lyrics were worth waiting seven years for.

The album has weaker points, but not many. “Consequences”, dancey and melodical in its Blank + Jones incarnation, sounds strangely flat here, as if the band was playing a different song to the one Vanessa is singing. Replace it with the Blank + Jones version and you’re done. “Once In A While” isn’t exactly a bad track, it’s just the least remarkable in this collection, drifting nowhere for its 5 minutes and 24 seconds. That’s it. The rest is all essential listening. Especially “Black And White”, sublime “Heart Of Wax” and “Joe Sent Me” should make it into everyone’s sonic libraries, like, NOW.

Which brings me to a really strange point — it looks like the album is ONLY available through www.daourecords.com (where I purchased it). It is a beautiful release, the physical CD looks much better than the scans available online, but in this day and age it is commercial suicide to ignore any digital vendors. Personally I like the fact Vanessa Daou is such a well hidden secret, but the fan in me wishes to see her topping the charts everywhere, and I don’t think selling the CD only through her website is going to help her achieve that. This album deserves much more recognition; and Vanessa deserves to make enough money to finance another release. So please buy it, everyone.

Vanessa Daou myspace
Vanessa Daou website
Daou Records