Jesca Hoop at Union Chapel, London, review: Older material leaves little impression

Hoop's current LP is the pick of the bunch, combining folksy loveliness with stranger, more unsettling tracks

Jesca Hoop (Facebook/press image)

An extraordinary feast of talented female singer-songwriters are lighting up the music scene at present. I’m thinking of Aldous Harding, Waxahatchee, Julia Jacklin, Angel Olsen, Feist, Cate le Bon – and Jesca Hoop.

For me, Hoop’s current LP – Memories Are Now – is the pick of the bunch, combining folksy loveliness with stranger, more unsettling tracks that hint at a wealth of ideas behind the delicate strumming.

Yet this performance, by the woman who apparently used to be Tom Waits’ nanny, fails to fully deliver on that promise, even in the striking surroundings of London’s converted Union Chapel.

Of course, the standout ballads Pegasi and The Coming are gorgeous, but older tracks lack their strong melodies – Hoop has been recording for a decade – and drag on, leaving little impression.

It brings home how basic many tracks are, with simple arrangements that mean, perhaps, that Hoop’s voice has to work a little too hard to bewitch the listener.

As a presence, the Californian who decamped to Manchester nine years ago, is predictably kooky in explaining the “things I hate about England”.

"They are the lack of a decent guacamole and “doors that take two hands to open – a waste of my time!” she tells us.

Indeed, the biggest impression is probably made by Hoop’s eye-popping red dress, containing almost no material below the waist. The singer herself calls it “ridiculous”, protesting of her dressmaker: “She’s left me without a skirt!”

The distorted guitar and soaring vocals of Cut Connection bring a welcome change of pace, but a singer this talented should be hitting those heights more often.