Joanna Newsom - Ys
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Free Music Notes for Ys
Free Music Review: Twain
Hit: 1 Stars
YS, to quote Mark Twain, is clearly "better than it sounds." I loved Milk Eyed Mender but when I listened to YS I cringed...how had someone so good become this unrecognizably overproduced?Free Music Review: Five Beautiful Epic Songs from Newsom
Hit: 5 Stars
I usually write reviews for movies but I've been listening to this disc since November and I have yet to get sick of it. I appreciate music as deeply as I do movies but I'm always a bit more apprehensive in asserting any strong opinions about music. To me it seems like a more subjective medium but I'm sure many will disagree. Anyway, Joanna Newsom is a harpist who sings epic folk songs with a voice as equally eclectic as Bjork's but more appropriately contained for her lyrics. The first few times I listened to this album I new immediately that these songs would take some getting used to. They are long and wordy but in time her lyrics come through and she has so much to say. I actually can't even believe Joanna Newsom is real. I'm almost tempted to say that she is some kind of collaboration of talent like some might say of William Shakespeare, but she's not. She is real and she is only in her mid-twenties. Newsom will never be a big star and she obviously doesn't care to be anyway. Her music, as I've described above, is not tailored for mainstream appeal and although the old punk in me might like her for that alone, I actually find her music massively appealing. You might too if you are open to appreciating music like this.
I'm not going to review every track individually because there is a lot to say. However, on an album with just five songs it is quite possible. The first song is probably the most appealing. It is a song called "Emily". It seems nostalgic and is about a loved one (I think her sister?) who chose a different path in life but a path Joanna seems encouraged to understand and appreciate. The only repeated lines, possibly even considered the chorus, are about the differences between a meteor, a meteorite, and a meteoroid. The astrophysics snob in me noticed she has the definitions wrong but perhaps as an outsider to her sister's chosen profession the oversight was intentional. A meteoroid is not the remnant after hitting the Earth, it is just a smaller asteroid already floating in space. Perhaps I'm a hemorrhoid for pointing that out? Regardless, the song is beautiful and says quite a bit in just over ten minutes. Like many of her songs it is bittersweet in some spots but overall absolutely beautiful.
My favorite song on the disc is "Only Skin". It is 17 minutes long but worth it entirely. It is a culmination of experiencing chaos and ruin but finding peace and strength in love through it all. Boy does that sound like a sappy and bombastic mouthful. I can't really put the song's meaning into one sentence of course but it is clearly about a strong relationship and any description I provide won't do her music justice anyway. Joanna's lyrics as a whole seem incredibly mature and are detailed enough that they must be profoundly personal. Her voice in "Only Skin" sounds amazing and the song's climax is in its own way explosive. It is a great piece of music.
Evidently, Newsom has quite a bit of credibility within her genre/sub-genre/indie folk scene. I'm not sure a label can be placed on her style of music. I don't want to call it experimental because it doesn't seem intentionally so, even though it does mix styles in a way I've never heard before. Her music comes off very natural and that is why it is, at least to my ears, as if she he has come from another planet. Like I said earlier, it is unconventional but in the long run it is quite possible that her music consume any listener. I highly recommend not only this album, but in general discovering this artist.
Free Music Review: Something special...friends and family may differ
Hit: 5 Stars
I first learned of Newsom reading an article about her on the NY Times web site. There was a link to the complete song "Emily" and once I heard it, I knew that I stumbled on something new and unique...this is probably the most meaningful artist I have encountered since Sigur Ros.
"Ys" is just amazing - the lyrics, orchestration, her voice. But this is not for the faint-of-heart, nor for someone seeking the conventional. Nearly all friends and family who have heard this album absolutely cannot stand it. I mean, they want it turned off - immediately...so buyer beware...
If this is your cup of tea, you are in for a real treat.
Free Music Review: Newsom Changes Her Pace
Hit: 5 Stars
I adore Joanna Newsom's first CD, The Milk-Eyed Mender, for three things: Newsom's childlike, caterwauling, but immediately arresting and charismatic voice; her strong harp melodies; and her witty lyrics. For her second album, Ys, Newsom improved her vocal technique just enough to eliminate her distinctiveness; drowned out her harp in lush orchestration; and moved on from three or four minute songs to epic allegories more poetic than lyrical. In other words, she cut out of this second album everything I loved about her first. The amazing thing is that very different sophomore album is at least as good as Newsom's first, but for entirely different reasons.
Ys is, first and foremost, about Newsom's lyrics. Leaving verse-chorus-verse far behind, she brings us five songs ranging in length from seven minutes to seventeen with recurring motifs rather than repetitious choruses. Her intricate rhyme schemes rival modern rap and her stories and their subjects range widely and are told inventively - especially Monkey & Bear, an allegory of a pimp-prostitute kind of relationship about a monkey who takes advantage of the talents of a dancing bear. Orchestral music is the best choice for lyrics this weighty yet far-out, and the childlike delivery Newsom' used in her last album as a kind of deceptive, even self-deprecating, counterpoint to the complex lyrics, could not sustain the additional weight the heavier, lengthier poetry of Ys. Newsom was correct in her risky decision to make over her style entirely for this album.
Ys is more challenging, less immediately catchy, than The Milk-Eyed Mender. But it is complex, deep, fascinating, and well worth multiple listens. Newsom shifts gears well. I hope that over the years, we get more of the Milk-Eyed Mender Newsom and more of the Ys Newsom; and if she can consistently reinvent herself this successfully, I also can't wait to see what other surprises she has in store for us.
Free Music Review: In my all-time Top 5
Hit: 5 Stars
To be honest, on first listen I didn't know what all the hype was about. In fact, it wasn't until the 3rd or 4th time I heard the album that it started to grow on me (starting with the astronomical chorus in Emily). While her voice takes some getting used to, once you do you start to realize it's raw beauty allows her to emote in a way that no other singer does. Before long I was telling people this was one of my favorite CDs of all-time. Every song on the CD is great--I'm not sure I've ever been able to say that about a full album before. Musically and lyrically I've never heard a combination quite like this. So, before you blow this eccentric masterpiece off the first time you hear it, give it some time to sink in: it's worth it.