Hope Waits
(Radarproof)
The voice is straight out of Raymond Chandler’s world: a young vixen dating an up-and-coming criminal, someone who has outsmarted the cops for now, but no doubt has a bullet with his name on it waiting for him down the line. Waits sings like she knows the mean streets, and doesn’t mind them. Classics like “Drown in My Own Tears” and “Mother in Law Blues” are not learned overnight; they have to be lived. And Hope Waits has. She’s the seventh of 12 children, whose mother was murdered when the singer was 21. Maybe that’s why all the slow songs here come from a place so deep that light never gets there. Even on the upbeat music, there is a sense of “seen-it-all” that wraps itself around her voice, creating a world of dark shadows. If Norah Jones is someone you’d want to hang out with and maybe go to the movies, then Hope Waits is a woman you’d want to meet at midnight and stay up until dawn, with the curtains drawn and the airconditioning on. She isn’t kidding, and listening to Waits’ emerge full-blown on her debut album is a stark and fairly stunning revelation. Be ready. Hope Waits performs at Hotel Café in Hollywood on Wednesday, September 19.
