Joan as Police Woman Lemons, Limes and Orchids
Joan as Police Woman's Lemons, Limes and Orchids opens as a nocturnal, intimate set that trades retro gloss for torch-singer intimacy and live-band immediacy. Across two professional reviews, critics praise the album's stripped-back instrumentation and vocal focus, noting how Joan Wasser's voice carries themes of love and loss, nostalgia, and a sense of lost-modernity through hushed piano, subtle beats and jazz-inflected arrangements.
The critical consensus, reflected in an 81/100 score across 2 professional reviews, centers on the record's fragile power and attention to small textures. Reviewers consistently point to standout tracks: “Full-Time Heist” and “Oh Joan” emerge repeatedly for their slinky rhythms, piano trills and falsetto moments, while “Started Off Free”, “Remember the Voice” and “With Hope In My Breath” are singled out for quiet explosiveness and vocal nuance. Critics note the album was recorded live with the band, a choice that deepens the bruised, worldly voice that permeates the collection and reinforces the themes of nostalgia and love tempered by loss.
While praise focuses on Wasser's commanding vocal performances and the record's live, stripped-back aesthetic, reviewers also imply a measured restraint rather than outright theatricality, which will reward repeated listens. For readers searching for a Lemons, Limes and Orchids review, the consensus suggests the album is a rewarding, vocally driven work that delivers its best songs through intimacy and careful arrangement, staking an assured place in Joan as Police Woman's catalog.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Started Off Free
1 mention
"Started Off Free is another stand-out vocal performance, a breathless torch song"— Louder Than War
Remember the Voice
1 mention
"Remember The Voice appears slight but is an unexploded bomb, self-control disguised as Peak Radiohead"— Louder Than War
Oh Joan
2 mentions
"the undulating highlight, Oh Joan, her high-wire falsetto slowly gives way to the sighed, repeated title"— The Observer (UK)
Started Off Free is another stand-out vocal performance, a breathless torch song
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
The Dream
Full-Time Heist
Back Again
With Hope In My Breath
Long For Ruin
Started Off Free
Remember the Voice
Oh Joan
Lemons, Limes and Orchids
Tribute To Holding On
Safe To Say
Help Is On It's Way
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 4 critics who reviewed this album
Th
Critic's Take
Joan as Police Woman returns with Lemons, Limes and Orchids, a quietly torrential record where Wasser finally releases pent-up emotion in stripped-back, nocturnal songs. The review highlights the best tracks as “Full-Time Heist” and “Oh Joan”, praising the former's slinky click beat and piano trills and the latter's undulating highlight of falsetto yielding to a sighed, repeated chorus. The writer favors Wasser when she acts like a torch singer, delicately pondering life’s elemental truths rather than leaning on retro-pop affectations. This is an intimate, measured album that rewards attention to small textures and vocal nuance.
Key Points
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The best song is “Oh Joan” for its undulating highlight and captivating falsetto-to-chorus transition.
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The album's core strengths are intimate, stripped-back arrangements and Wasser's versatile, torch-singer vocal delivery.
Themes
Critic's Take
Joan as Police Woman sounds at her most beguiling on Lemons, Limes and Orchids, where the best tracks - “The Dream” and “Started Off Free” - dwell in that bruised, worldly voice that MK Bennett keeps returning to. Bennett writes with amused authority, noting the record was "recorded old school live with the band" and praising the album's strange marriage of ancient feeling and modern production. He highlights how songs like “Full-Time Heist” and “Remember The Voice” sneak up on you, quiet and explosive, showing why listeners ask which are the best songs on Lemons, Limes and Orchids. The result is a seductive tour de force where songwriting, playing and especially the vocals make certain tracks stand out as the album's crowning moments.
Key Points
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The best song is "The Dream" for its alluring soft-shoe shuffle, modern backing and cinematic mood.
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The album's core strengths are Joan's vocals, live-band recording energy, and an inventive blend of jazz, electronica and vintage influences.