Order of romance

"Hoop (...) has spanned everything from finger-picking troubadour tropes to indie-rok exultation on past albums. Here she tries something different again, framing her songs in chamber-pop arrangements with a horn and woodwind quintet supporting her multi-tracked vocal harmonies. As ever, her lyrics are full of literate complexity, the personal and political intertwined on songs about such heavyweight subjects as gun control, religious cults and climate change. John Parish's production keeps the sound suitably sharp and edgy on a set that eschews easy options in pursuit of a challenging but satisfying singularity".

"A new Jesca Hoop record tends to breeze in like a rogue weather system, moving on its own musical crosswinds - cosmic barbershop, maybe, or hippy musical theatre - regardless of seasonal norms. 'Order Of Romance' (...) is bracing from the start, theatrical vocals, horns and woodwind clashing against homespun rhythms and nursery-rhyme folk. If "Silent Extinction" or "Hatred Has A Mother" sound ethereal, like a Haight-Asbury Björk or The Raincoats off-off-off Broadway, the lyrics are worldly, exploring environmental meltdown, family trauma and revolutionary politics ... It's not quite as accessible as 2009's 'Hunting My Dress' or 2017's 'Memories Are Now', but 'Order Of Resonance' has an astringent - and sometimes startling - beauty of its own".