Long Wave Home masterfully pairs the voice of Hoop, sounding like the calmest of seas, with a diverse, textural approach to her arrangements that sparkle like a coral reef, hiding multitudes below the surface.
The next chapter of the story for do-it-all artist Jesca Hoop sees her return with her new album Long Wave Home, arriving through her own label Last Laugh. Staying true to her folk roots, though never purely, Hoop delivers strikingly original songwriting showcasing her innovative vocals augmented by imaginative arrangements. Long Wave Home is energised and rings with the promise of a fresh new chapter for the artist.
Long Wave Home walks the line between political and personal introspection, often merging the two. The album rallies around the strength of relationships and communities and the importance of solidarity among everybody who calls the earth home.
Long Wave Home is full of tender and playful sounds. Set sail and enjoy the whimsical sound of opening track, Adam, Hoop’s voice sounds light and airy against lullaby-esque strings and harps. Following on is Now The Ash, which is another stellar example of the way Hoop can soar and direct her voice skyward. She sings “Everything drawn together is torn apart, therefore don’t fear love”, and she could be singing of the natural world, or the way society never fails to create a wedge between people.
Much is the case for Designer Citizen as Hoop laments: “Gonna laugh as I’m losing my country” or on Big Storm as she says “I aint got no man I got my own plan” against a deliciously country sounding groove, bolstered by rich sounding orchestral work.
The project was recorded with the songwriter on the move, shifting up and down the motorways and through different cities and studios, so that might begin to explain why the album is full of songs that sound like stories picked up from life on the road, such as Caravan, as the singer yearns: “One kiss on the dancefloor and I climbed aboard your caravan”.
Everything so far might lead you to believe this is an album content to sit in the tall grass, picking daisies, but Hoop is also unafraid to conjure anguish for the cause, Playground is a furious song, Hoop’s radar fixated on the horrendous consequences of war and injustice, pinpoint eyes filled with smouldering anger: “if rubble is playground in all that their new eyes see”.
Quite possibly saving the very best till last, the title track, Long Wave Home, is an absolute treasure trove of visual imagery; with a wave of her finger, Hoop is able to make you visualise “Neon Lights, Assembly Lines, Night Trains”. The track ends the project with a rousing, comforting cry as if to say, “I made this album for everybody”; the well-travelled Hoop is able to walk a mile in everybody’s shoes.
Long Wave Home (May 1st, 2026) Last Laugh
Bandcamp: https://jescahoop.bandcamp.com/album/long-wave-home