Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (RIP blogs)

that song streaming on drag city sounds a lot like "army dreamers" by kate bush

she is sounding a lot like kate bush lately. and it's not just her voice/phrasing, even her songwriting. it's kind of disappointing because whatever you think about her, until recently you could never say "she sounds just like [insert name]".

between that and picturing a naked + sweaty adam sanberg during her tender love ballads....

I agree that the new song sounds a bit like Kate Bush, but I think she's not a bad person to be compared to.

Strangely, prior to this song I had been reminded a bit of Kate Bush simply in the way it took both singers a couple albums to really grow into their voices. Kate's voice sounded very thin and child-like on her first album or two, but over time she gained a lot of depth and breathiness.

Joanna Newsom seems to be headed in the same direction, though unlike Kate Bush, she wasn't born with a golden voice. She's had to work a bit harder to get to a "good" singing voice.

Why has she been trying to look so damn sexy lately?

Why not?

Shes trying to sell records I guess ;)

Great photo for the album cover but I'm still not to keen on the typographic choice.

The font works really well for me. The whole cover reminds me of something you would see from that era in the early/mid 70s when imagery and design from the 20s/30s made a comeback. See also The Sting, Bugsy Malone and this Stones tour poster...

http://www.postersnthings.com/posters/rolling_stones_euro_tour_70.jpg

BUSTED

classic poster imo

lol

ilu nabisco

Why has she been trying to look so damn sexy lately?

― Evan, Monday, February 1, 2010 10:57 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Why not?

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Monday, February 1, 2010 10:59 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Shes trying to sell records I guess ;)

― Evan, Monday, February 1, 2010 11:03 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark

blarg

Hey, in the right light...

The way Newsom makes music seems — at best — very, very distantly related to the texture of your everyday life in the here-and-now part of the world. Harps, dancing bears, walnut-shell boats: I have never seen any of these things in a bodega.

it's unfair to splice this out of nabisco's longer graph, in which it's making a case that newsom's aesthetic and rhetoric are distinctly exotic and alien, and the piece goes on to defuse the idea that these things are overbearing. but i have problems with this idea generally. i don't think people consume in such a literal way, or only look for poetry in realms similar to their own - i feel like the connective point between j-new and annoying teenage fans is the emotion and conclusions she draws on her experience, even if monkeys and bears are stand-ins for girls and boys. the particulars in her lyrics are markedly unfamiliar but those things are interchangeable and don't affect our understanding of things.

i don't know if the opprobrium towards people listening to music outside of their immediate sphere - rich white kids listening to hip hop or whatever - even exists anymore, or is solely in my imagination, but i think the argument against that is that we don't relate to art according to its superficial variables but in its themes; we might not spend much time in the forest but can understand a midsummer night's dream or whatever. joanna newsom's waiting to be pigeonholed, and there are enough anomalous aspects to her music & persona for critics to wave a flag about, but it maybe irks me slightly when the charge of being precious and flighty is hung on something interchangeable.

xp
blarg

― schlump, Monday, February 1, 2010 11:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Hey, in the right light...

― Evan, Monday, February 1, 2010 11:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was blarging at the idea that j new dared to bare flesh purely as a capitalist strategy fwiw

Haha oh I wasn't seriously suggesting that.

yeah, schlump, Max wrote some interesting things about that later! I was definitely skimming over the ways things like allegories are referring to the here-and-now. What's interesting to me is that her sorta "make-believe" aesthetic is actually the least affected option for a harp player with a voice like that -- playing stuff we perceive as more here-and-now might seem bizarre for her!

Interesting how that album cover, though, is a definite leap in contemporary here-and-now imagery for her.

I still think this is going to be my album of the year. Still haven't heard a note! Man, music is awesome.

So will there be an equivalent thread bitching about this album when it inevitably tops the Pitchfork and Pazz & Jop lists?

Can someone explain Joanna Newsom to me? I just don't get it.

see there's this bear and a monkey and the wizard of Ys.

Can someone explain Joanna Newsom to me? I just don't get it.

― joep, Monday, February 1, 2010 9:23 PM (2 minutes ago)

Just watch this!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=032nP0N-QRE

Note: You should be dying while you watch that.

Jesus that looks difficult.

There has to be more than technical skill. Do people lose their minds over her for any other reason than she plays the harp and is very cute? The voice is a bit strange and inaccessible for the mainstream, the songs are kind of obtuse and nontraditional... I'm not saying these are bad things but I am wondering if she is more of an aesthetic self-fulfilling choice for fans.

No one listens to her because she's the Yngwie Malmsteen of the harp -- she's isn't! There's no unnecessary display of technical prowess going on in any of her songs; they're all carefully, and painstakingly, composed pieces, and I personally don't hear anything "extraneous" in any of them. In addition to her precise and evocative lyrics, which are only Ren faire bullshit to people who either actively want to dislike her or don't know what close reading is, I love her because her music really is really idiosyncratic, but not in a way that grates, despite what others say. If you can find a way in to the songs that works for you, I think there's always a possibility that the world she's creating will open up to you in a way you might find really compelling and affecting.

Thanks man, no one has ever taken the time to explain any of this to me. Honestly I haven't listened extensively, so I plan to spend some time with the new one. But the most reasoning to listen I ever get from the trendsters is "she's amazing", with little to no elaboration or points.

She is extremely technically proficient, and I think that contributes to the fullness of melody you might hear otherwise in two talented dueling guitars. Point is that it isn't show-offery, the ambitious compositions serve the song and the melody, as apposed to most jam-bands that have it exactly opposite.

Hey man, no problem! If you decide to listen to her first LP, Milk-Eyed Mender, first, it's a good idea to keep in mind that it's far more of a scattered and erratically pleasurable affair than Ys. Some songs, like "Sadie," are really compelling mini-narratives backed by the harp, but there's also harpsichord ("Peach, Plumb, Pear") and piano(?) ("Three Little Babes"). It's kind of all over the place, but it has its own charm, and when it hits its stride (the aforementioned "Sadie," "Book of Right-On," and "Sprout and the Bean"), it's awesome. Ys, in my opinion, is great all the way through, so I can only recommend listening to it closely a few times through, then perhaps a few times with the lyric sheet in front of you, and then another time after reading Erik Davis's piece on Ys from Arthur Magazine (http://www.arthurmag.com/2006/12/23/nearer-the-heart-of-things-erik-davis-on-joanna-newsom-from-arthur-no-25winter-02006/). That's just one possible way of trying to approach her music, of course, but I think it could work. Still, some people won't like her stuff no matter how they listen to it, and that's fine too.

Holy f. I watched that Sawdust & Diamonds clip through to the end. I think a certain kind of artist has a kind of singular song that might not be a good jumping off point for a newcomer looking for their way in, but is a perfect summation of their aesthetic/what they're reaching for. Something like Voodoo Child (Slight Return) for Jimi Hendrix or Lover You Should've Come Over for Jeff Buckley. Those are probably bad examples for a lot of people here, but I do think she fits into a kind of capable rockist auteur thing. I mean, a lot of critical narrative hovers around "Well, they could barely [do x] but they overcome [] to interesting effect". What happens when they can execute whatever they want? So it's all back on concept? Not sure if I'm explaining this right. I'm just not articulate enough to, um, articulate what I'm getting at.

Her new look and celebrity stizz isn't vibing with me hard, that said I like her new song much more than anything on Ys so hmmmmmm

I've liked her since the Cair Paravel reference on MEM. Haven't listened to Ys more than a few times after an initial enjoyment of it. Her voice doesn't *SQUEAK* before every line on the new single like it does on Ys. That's good at least.

She has another new track up on http://www.dragcity.com/

Piano and drums!

wow, based on those 2 songs previewed on drag city i might buy this

She sounds like shes conciously trying not to sing as over the top as he has previously. Maybe shes as bored with freak-folk quirks as most of us are.

she has*

http://pitchfork.com/news/37767-another-new-joanna-newsom-song/

Ah, Evan already posted the link. Cool! (I'm not going to listen to any of these until I get the full record.)

She didn't sound over the top on Ys and I doubt she was ever reaching for any 'freak folk' voice.
These songs are a little different and I like both a lot.

She was a bit over the top, as everything was on that album (I really like it by the way!). And those vocal quirks have been associated with freak-folk, and so has she. I like her, so please don't feel defensive.

Okay, really really loving "Good Intentions Paving Company".

I do believe this song has signalled the coming of the messiah.

by which I mean, it's pretty great.

She sounded great in concert last night. It was really great hearing her voice surrounded by quite a few different instruments and great to see her jump on the piano a couple of times.

the leaked songs are my least favorite of what I've heard from the new stuff tbh

jim o'rourke produced this, right?

He did? Again? Oh man.

He only mixed Ys. :)

would ppl who are repping hard for jn's harp chops please list four or five of their other favorite harpists, please

(sorry)

my favorite harpists are Ann Hobson-Pilot and Elizabeth Remy