In 2017, 20 years and 20-some albums after their full-length debut, Chicago avant rockers Joan of Arc made their first appearance on a few of the Billboard side charts with the improvisation-based He’s Got the Whole This Land Is Your Land in His Hands. Taking yet another left turn in a long line of unpredictable releases, they follow it a year later with 1984, an album that combines spare, ambient rock accompaniment with what were originally a cappella pieces by Melina Ausikaitis. Ausikaitis had performed some of these autobiographical vignettes live at Joan of Arc shows prior to making her official recording debut as Tim Kinsella’s co-singer/lyricist on the 2017 LP. Here, she takes over the lead and, with a notably homespun delivery, paints memorable portraits with…
…her candid, plainly poetic remembrances.
Among titles like “Tiny Baby” and “Vermont Girl,” “Punk Kid” is one of the lusher entries, opening with a drone, melodic keyboard, and stacked atmospheric effects. When Ausikaitis eventually enters, her voice takes on a reflective tone on lines like “I get my head shaved/Cuz of the lice/My collared shirts/Have the bottoms tucked inside” before becoming more emphatic on the repeated “All my life/I’ve been eating shit/Look at me/I’m a real punk kid.” In contrast, “Maine Guy” opens with nature field recordings and an audible sigh. Quiet, sustained electronic tones and passing moments of instrumental dissonance mix with the sound of crunching footsteps in snow under Ausikaitis’ brief descriptions of things tragic and ordinary. There is one instrumental track, the sweetly melodic “Psy-Fi/Fantasy,” which features flute, humming keys, and distorted kazoo as well as acoustic guitar and spacy electronics, and the closing track, “Forever Jung,” offers an incoherent Kinsella instead of an articulate Ausikaitis. Despite these two tracks and the presence of electronics, 1984 is memorable for its folky, Scout Finch-like recollections that mix the playful, unfortunate, and innocent.