Jane Weaver – Love In Constant Spectacle review

Some artists work for decades to get to a relateable niche of their own, a handful find theirs more quickly. Jane Weaver spent the opening phase of what you might call her true solo career – loosely beginning with 2010’s The Fallen By Watchbird – dabbling in folk, before eventually getting tired of the baggage which companies women and acoustic guitars.

The resultant onward transformation which for many was loosely boundaried via 2017’s Modern Kosmology, recast the singer as an explorer of krautrock and modern psychedelia, interspersed with deft, arty touches of synth pop. From a British perspective Weaver now has few peers (Maybe the similarly idiosyncratic Gwenno) and a stack of goodwill that also brings with it a license to shift things around, which Love In Constant Spectacle does without losing essence.

Written whilst her father was gravely ill – he’s since passed – the change in emotional landscape also prompted the singer to bring in PJ Harvey producer John Parsons, a first for an artist who had always preferred working autonomously. The results still have noticeable peaks – from the charmingly wonky pop of Romantic Worlds, to Motif’s skeletal beauty and Family of The Sun’s new age robe ambience. But it’s the title track which offers a measure of hope after sadness, a reaffirmation that wherever she goes next, Jane Weaver will still be a prisoner of nobody’s expectations but her own.

You can read the full review here.

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