Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Joanna NewsomEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-02-23
Music Label: Drag City
Product features:
- Folk/Neofolk
Music CD 1
- Easy
- Have One On Me
- '81
- Good Intentions Paving Co.
- No Provenance
- Baby Birch
- On A Good Day
- You And Me, Bess
- In California
- Jackrabbits
- Go Long
- Occident
- Soft As Chalk
- Esme
- Autumn
- Ribbon Bows
- Kingfisher
- Does Not Suffice
Free Music Notes for Have One on Me
Free Music Review: The Adventures of Jackrabbit & Kingfisher
Hit: 5 Stars
If "Ys" from 2006 has taught us anything, its that eloquence & harmony can go together most remarkably, a fact that Joanna Newsom has attempted to replicate on this triple-disc project. As a standalone body of work it is peerless, as a companion piece to "Ys" it is transcendent, and as a cohesive statement about the artists' work, it is exemplary. However, despite the accolades that one might afford it, the project is indeed `difficult' and a labor to sit through, in portions. This is true even if one has been a Newsom follower for a while. It is also impossible to imagine taking all of this in during one sitting, as it is rather long-winded and deserves a dedicated amount of investment.
"Have One on Me" attempts to chronicle something, though of course the easiest word to ascribe to this is `relationship'. However, as "Ys" has shown us, the lyrical imagery birthed by her lyrics seem far removed from dry and mundane things such as humans and their romantic entanglements. That said, it is difficult to find the baroque, and indeed, medieval elements that made "Ys" so stunning, on this record. At best, this is a very different work, thematically and sonically, with various standouts at every juncture. Ironically, this listener found the much praised tracks ("Good Intentions Paving Company", "Does Not Suffice") to be amongst the weaker of the lot. It appears that Joanna really takes flight with the free-form tracks, and while she sounds pleasant enough on more conventional songs, it is her sprawling mess on the title track, and "Kingfisher" that automatically stand out.
The title track appears inspired by Lola Montez, a real life figure who at one point held sway amongst royal circles in Bavaria, and eventually threatened to bring down the Kingdom (her biography paints her all sorts of colors, but `not interesting' isn't one of them). She was acclaimed for her famous `spider dance' that reportedly ensnared the King of Bavaria who eventually alienated his entire parliament due to his inexplicable obsession with her. In reality, Lola Montez's story is even more fascinating as she became a notorious world traveler and engaged in all sorts of dubious professions before finally taking solace in Christianity. The song traces her journey upward (or whichever direction) and focuses on the prime of her life, which is when she was the talk of subcontinental Europe. As usual, Newsoms' verbose lyrics make this a trip worth taking.
Its also interesting to see that Newsoms' turn of phrase and verbal stylings have undergone a seachange since her last outing. Remember the almost Tolkien-like lyrics of "Emily", and most pointedly on "Only Skin" from "Ys". Gone are the Arthurian verbology of those times, and in its place is a more accessible, or should I say `suburban' sensibility to the songwriting herein. Songs like `Easy' are laughably simple, lyrically, that you wonder if Joanna hasn't traded in her quill for an urban typewriter. Regard this quaint lyric from "Go Long" and that should explain to you the general tone of the songwriting of this recording:
"Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze
Sickly dressage, a princess of Kentucky
In the middle of the woods which were the probable cause
We danced in the lodge like two panting monkeys"
The strangeness of some of the lyrics are matched only by the curious musical arrangements. While "Ys" had an impressive string section with sweeping harmonies that appeared out of nowhere, this recording is far more subdued and a lot calmer, as it trades in those strings for more plaintive piano and harp arrangements. This is both a good and a bad thing as there is a certain `sameness' that permeates the entire album. While this worked to an extent on "Ys", the fact that it was a 5-track album perhaps masked the lingering suspicion that Newsom didn't have many tricks under her sleeve. But if you can get past the occasional `in a rut' passages (there are a couple of times where you would definitely feel `stuck' while listening to this, especially if you are attempting to listen to the 2+ hours at one stretch), you can appreciate the nuances that Newsom brings to the table as a composer. Indeed, there is nary a note out of place, nor a lyric that doesn't match itself to the melody, and for this she deserves high praise.
However, for many reasons, my personal favorite remains `Kingfisher' which appears at the end of this album. It's a big song, not as big as some of the others here but still very, very long and does not conform to any rhythmic structure. Its all over the place but eventually begins to rein it together towards the end as it ties together the various musical elements that came before it. The cryptic lyrics are double entendre, as they veer from straight-forward to masked, and the song can be construed in three very different fashions. Consider these words:
"We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshipping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth
Left us bound, and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking"
But as the song proceeds, such technicalities are left to the wind, as she becomes more direct, more personal, leading up to some of the best songwriting shes ever come up with:
"And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath"
Joanna Newsom may be clubbed along with Devendra Banhart in the `freak folk' movement (a tag that I totally disagree with, by the way), but her ability to write is at least twenty times better than Banharts. Sonically she is moving closer and closer to indefinable territory. There are patches on this record where the newly ascribed Joni Mitchell comparisons seem valid, and there are other places where the Kate Bush comparisons seem resoundingly fair (the album does contain strains of `Hounds of Love', in all fairness). But with her mellowed-down voice, the more direct songwriting, the absolute disregard for musical convention, and her core work with her self-taught instrument - the harp, she has transcended genre and evolved into a completely new musical genre of her own. This is most evident throughout this album, and while "Ys" had hinted at it, "Have One On Me" confirms it.
As there is no living record that could possibly compare to this, save for Newsoms' own "Ys", perhaps you would do well to check out that record first before coming to this. For long-time Newsom aficionados this should be a breeze to get used to (but honestly, I see this album revealing itself over years, not months or days). However, if you could find beauty within "Ariel" by Kate Bush, "The Isle of Dreaming" by Kate Price (whose musical instrumentations can be readily compared to this record), "Parallelograms" by Linda Perhacs, and "Emily" by Emily Dilinger (long out of print, sadly), then this album will definitely work for you. Obviously Newsom makes music that will be discussed, heard, and dissected over generations of music lovers, so this ones for keeps. If any album by a male artist could come close to this, it would have to be "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" by Devendra Banhart.
Five Stars. An indispensable addition to your independent music collection. File next to Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, Jana Hunter, & Meg Baird.
Have One on Me Poster
2010 three CD release from the acclaimed singer/songwriter, the long-awaited follow-up to her album The Y's. Featuring Ryan Francesconi and Neal Morgan from Joanna's Ys Street Band, Have One On Me is an extravagantly packaged collection of fantastic new Joanna Newsom songs: her most colorful record to date. Joanna's music has more of an affinity with the Folk revival of the '60s, or the Bluegrass movement at present, than with most contemporary Folk (or Anti-Folk) scenes. Affinities aside, her style could hardly be called Bluegrass; nor does it evoke the pastoral tonalities of '60s Folk: she sings about whalebones, sleep, grammar, mollusks, accumulation, automobiles, owls, burning boats, string collections, milk, teeth, bridges, balloons, cake, colors, and kin, all in an otherworldly, ragged-sweet voice that defies convention.Alternative Rock Music CDs
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