The worst that could be said about the new Jesca Hoop album, her first solo collection of new material in five years, is that it doesn’t always cohere. This shouldn’t come as a surprise (“I have an identity crisis every time I write a catalogue of songs,” she said in 2011). Her sound can switch abruptly from gossamer folk to gritty bar-room blues, while the songs encompass complaints against lacklustre lovers (The Lost Sky), satire on computer domination (Animal Kingdom Chaotic) and the ballad of a flying horse (Pegasi). But the restlessness is counterweighted by wit and songwriting power – most evident on The Coming, where the singer, who was raised by Mormons in California, turns upon the religion of her childhood.
