Album Info Hide Show Artist: Joan As Police Woman, Tony Allen, Dave Okumu Album: The Solution Is Restless Released: Europe, 2021 Tracklist: A1 The Barbarian A2 Get My Bearings B3 Take Me To Your Leader B4 Masquerader B5 Dinner Date C6 Enter The Dragon C7 Geometry Of You C8 The Love Has Got Me D9 Perfect Shade Of Blue D10 Reaction Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. 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If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show The Solution Is Restless feels like a late night conversation between three musicians who trust each other completely. Joan As Police Woman brings that smoky, elastic voice and a songwriters ear. Dave Okumu threads guitar lines that curl like incense. And Tony Allen, the heartbeat of Afrobeat and longtime Fela Kuti drummer, sets a pulse that never hurries yet never drifts. The record arrived in November 2021, not long after Allens passing in 2020, and you can hear why people talk about it as one of his final, shining sessions. There is grief in these grooves, but there is also play. It sounds lived in. The origin story has become part of the albums lore. The trio met up in Paris in 2019, rolled tape, and let improvisations lead the way. Joan took those skeletal jams back home during lockdown and shaped them into songs, keeping the spontaneous feel while carving space for melody and mood. You can hear the process on Take Me to Your Leader, which floats in on glistening keys before Allens hi-hat pulls everything into focus. Joan sings with a calm urgency, like someone delivering hard news softly. Okumus guitar never crowds, it just murmurs along the edges, then suddenly snaps into view. Get My Bearings is the other instant landmark, and not just because Damon Albarn drops in with a ghosted vocal and keys. The track feels like drifting down a city street after midnight, passing lit windows and catching snatches of conversation. Albarns presence makes sense given his history with Allen in The Good, the Bad & the Queen, but he never overshadows. Its still a Joan record at heart, guided by her sense of patience and her way of letting a line land on the second or third listen. Allen was famous for playing with time, for making simple patterns feel like they were constantly unspooling. The Solution Is Restless leans into that. The grooves never show off, yet every bar has a different tilt. Even when the band locks into something deceptively steady, there are tiny flutters in the kick, little brushstrokes in the snare. Okumu answers with tones that glow rather than blaze. He has always been a generous collaborator, whether in The Invisibles Mercury-nominated orbit or behind the scenes with pop and art rock outliers. Here he plays the long game, choosing color over flash. Joans writing has a way of making intimacy feel cinematic. She can make a phrase ring like a headline or dissolve like breath on a window. The record honors Allens rhythmic language while staying true to her own lyrical clarity. There is plenty of open air in the arrangements, so when the keys bloom or the guitar brightens, it feels like a door opening. The title track moves like a dream you can recall in fragments. Geometry of You glides on a loping pattern that could run for ten minutes and never wear out its welcome. The whole thing sits in a sweet spot between art soul, jazz shadows, and a kind of low light funk. It drew praise on release from critics who heard the same nocturnal pull. What sticks with me, though, is how unforced it feels. Much of the album was born from improvisation, yet it never sounds tossed off. You can tell Joan lived with these tapes, listened for the phrases that wanted to be songs, and gave them just enough structure to last. On vinyl, this music breathes. The cymbals feel more silvery, the bass less bottled. If you can find The Solution Is Restless vinyl, grab it. It is the sort of record that rewards a quiet room and a side-flip. I have pointed more than a few customers toward Joan As Police Woman vinyl when they ask for something intimate but not sleepy, and this is an easy staff pick. If you need to buy Joan As Police Woman records online, this one is a perfect gateway, and it sits nicely next to Tony Allen titles if you are building a shelf of his collaborations. For anyone crate-digging in a Melbourne record store or browsing vinyl records Australia wide, it is worth the hunt. It also plays well alongside other Joan As Police Woman albums on vinyl, since you can trace her songwriting voice even as the rhythm language shifts. Most collaborations promise chemistry. This one delivers something rarer, a conversation that keeps moving after the needle lifts. You can feel the room, the late hour, the warmth of three musicians meeting in the middle and leaving space for each other. That is the solution the title hints at. Restless, yes, but deeply restful too. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review