  cover art  Jesca Hoop  Hunting My Dress  (Vanguard; US: 27 Jul
2010; UK: 1 Feb 2010)  Jesca Hoop would make one hell of an
interview.  Raised by Mormons, escaping to travel the country
with Deadheads, she eventually settled for something less
unusual: working as a nanny for legendary musical chameleon Tom
Waits, a job title nearly as impressive as her music.  Oh, wait,
that’s still pretty weird. The nanny thing comes through in the
music, too—a large handful of these tracks, with their gently
picked acoustics and mystical vocal harmonies, are as dreamy and
transportive as a great bedtime story. If you went that route
and played these songs for your kids, there’s a chance they’d
grow up significantly cooler. Then again, there’s also the off-
chance you’ll just freak the shit out of them. The deeper you
dig, the weirder things get—the lyrics, filled with splatters of
blood and visitations from dead moms—start to feel more like
campfire tales than “once upon a times”.  Hoop sure knows how to
start off an album—