joanna newsom - ys

  Quote

Harpist Joanna Newsom's second album - pronounced 'Ees' - is extraordinary, an instant (pre)modern classic. Named after a mythical, flooded Breton city, it follows her cult hit, 2004's The Milk-Eyed Mender.

 

A glance at the support personnel involved is enough to make you spill your mead. Brian Wilson's lieutenant Van Dyke Parks did the stark string arrangements over a period of eight months. Cantankerous analogue producer Steve Albini (Nirvana) recorded it. Experimental guru Jim O'Rourke mixed it. Most jaw-dropping of all is Newsom herself, a fearless original. She wields a harp (as she did on her debut) and a poetic menagerie of animals, meteors, fear and joy. Marimbas and horse skulls flesh out the harp, vocals and strings on these five long tracks; her creepy boyfriend Bill Callahan (Smog) chips in with backing vocals. Newsom's eccentric child-witch delivery has been tempered somewhat since her debut but remains unmistakable; her dense, storytelling lyrics faintly recall Patti Smith's surging poetry, in texture if not in vocabulary. With weird folk and neo-medievalism all the rage in arty circles, Newsom has decisively outclassed all comers on one of the albums of the year.

I don't like it.

its out there already?

whats not to like?

  awkward said:

its out there already?

 

whats not to like?

Yeah it leaked the other week.

The songs are too long and not as catchy as her other stuff. I'd imagine it will take along time to get in to, but tbh, I've never been hugely fond of her, so I'm not going to bother.

  awkward said:

  Quote

Newsom's eccentric child-witch delivery has been tempered somewhat since her debut

If this is really the case I might check this, I haven't been into her much as her vocals tend to drive me insane...

i absolutely love it, it's a real progression from the milk-eyed mender. and there's a bit less of a squeak in her voice. the string arrangements are marvellous.

yay danieeeeel has no taste

  dannniel said:

I don't like it.

thats exactly what i thought of it, nothing more nothing less

but did you like milk eyed?

i can't stand her voice and mostly can't stand her music, period

then why come in here and tell us so?

  awkward said:

but did you like milk eyed?

I liked one song from that album. But I mean really, really , really liked it. It was brilliant. But nothing else she's done has compared to it, least of all the meandering crap that is her new one. Meh.

  awkward said:

then why come in here and tell us so?

i suppose hoping to warn people off from buying anything she's released ... but yeah i don't really know why any of us share our opinions on half the stuff here

after posting that i realise that i go into threads and slag things off all the time. so please continue.

lol

i'll say this... if you liked joanna newsom cos she had catchy tunes or a lolsome voice, you'll probably not like this. it's five very long songs that tell stories. but her voice has really matured, she squeaks and shit a bit, but there's an almost kate bush-ish quality to her voice in places. if you've never heard joanna newsom before, start with the milk-eyed mender, if you have or are familiar with van dyke parks' stuff, get this. it's seriously ambitious.

it's proggy as fuck as well.

  awkward said:

but did you like milk eyed?

hmm, yeah i guess. but it didnt stay long with me

this album is oustanding, i'ma buy it when it comes out.

some of my friends were playing this at a party... it only seemed to appeal to the girls, i was confused as to what they were snapping their fingers to (no beats!?)

well it's hardly party music you're right about that, but i don't think it was intended to be, get the shortest track "cosmia" and listen to it a few times through, if you still aren't feeling it then you probably wont like the rest of the album.

This is so fookin good. In my top albums this year somewhere.

aside from 'pop-yness', this album is a step up in all areas of her music.

she sounds right at home over the wonderfully lush orchestrations.

the storytelling is great and makes you forget that you're listening to the same song for 15 minutes.

her singing is not as quirky anymore, still very idiosynchratic, but much more confident and true to her own voice.

great album.

you people will buy into all sorts of crap. that's why i stay, to feel superior, you know...

  theocide said:

you people will buy into all sorts of crap. that's why i stay, to feel superior, you know...

Not true, it's just that there are very few people attempting to do anything even remotely original anymore. Even if you don't like it, you can respect what she is trying to do...

lol, pitchfork gave it a 9.4 ... they also gave the new hold steady album a 9.4, so, i guess this just proves my theory that pitchfork are usually wrong