The first thing you notice about singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop’s seventh full-length is how spare it sounds, each song assembled only from two or three instrumental elements and Hoop’s warm-yet-adaptive, shape-shifting voice. Then you stop hearing that sparseness, so rich does the album sound. Somewhere near a half-hour into its 40-minute running time, it hits you again, and you start wondering how the hell Memories Are Now can sound so expansive, considering its skeletal arrangements. Hoop will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our feature.
Hoop: As a health practice, I regularly visit saunas and move from hot rooms to ice-cold plunge pools and back and forth again and again. This gets the blood flowing and releases all sorts of tension. Not to mention I drink a lot of water in the process. I leave feeling new. Without this practice, I certainly feel that I’m missing something.
