Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (RIP blogs)

hahaha :-)

I am considering getting this after hearing that one song from it that I found on Youtube that I posted way upthread. Singing healthily was a avery good move for her.

i thought disc 1 was pretty sweet. the way her music naturally wanders is tantalizing and frustrating to me--like sometimes she just nails a melody or a hook and you're like yeah! but then she's off to something else. i can never 100% love that, but i can respect it.

I haven't listened to it much yet, but so far it's not grabbing me like Ys did. The sparser production might be nice on a few songs but 2.5 hours of it starts to get on my nerves. Also I think maybe I liked her singing better when it was less polished, but I have a thing for "ugly" voices. I don't hate the album but don't love it much yet either.

Really prefer the harp-based songs to the piano-based songs.

to summarize: not enough unicorns

its an interesting album. i guess i was wrong when i said it wouldnt convert anyone--she seems to have traded in a lot of the stuff that turned ppl off, but at the same time that stuff was what turned a lot of people on.

I've been a longtime defender of newsom from the ILX unicorn hordes but haven't felt compelled to pick this up

I'll get it eventually, but hearing the sydney opera house show didn't leave me enthused

I think you'll like the title track, Edward.

From Time:

The album's over two hours long and spread out over three discs. It seems designed to be listened to as one complete product and not as a series of separate songs. Why did you make something in this format?

I tried to sequence it so that it could be listened to in its entirety and had a progression that felt thematically logical and natural. In a way, the three records are like chapters in a book. Unless you're serializing a book you wouldn't separate the chapters, but they're also meant to be these little self-contained segments within the narrative.

She's so much more modest than some give her credit for:

I would place myself squarely on the nonclassical side. As a composer, I require assistance. I have ideas and I have an album in mind but I'm limited, I need help making the record. I'm a very poor composer. I really am. That may change over the years, but right now I have such a huge gap between what's in my mind and what I'm able to notate. I think it would be disingenuous for me to claim to be part of the classical world.

that's honesty, not modesty

which I also give her credit for

"free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness, or great pretensions"

(via)

Some people have this attitude that she thinks she's doing this grand thing that's so much more serious than all other music or something, and that she thinks she's some sort of a serious composer, when that's just not true. So, yep, it's modesty.

Excellent quote from the excellent short EW interview:

EW: Some people do look at a song as a chore if it’s over 10 minutes. They might say, “This is good, but I have to warn you—it’s ten minutes long and has a harp.”

JN: [laughs] Yeah, I understand that, but of course when a person writes music—I guess this isn’t the case with some death metal music where the intention is slightly different—but in general I feel when someone’s writing something it’s because it sounds good to them. Their instinct is to do what sounds pretty, and sounds good, and to me that’s what I do. So obviously when I hear it I go, “good job, self, you’ve made a song that sounded the way you want it to sound.” And then of course there’s not that many people who feel the same way about it. But there’s enough.

I think you are misinterpreting people being annoyed with slavish fandom as people thinking Joanna Newsom is all into herself.

As a composer, I require assistance. I have ideas and I have an album in mind but I'm limited, I need help making the record. I'm a very poor composer. I really am. That may change over the years, but right now I have such a huge gap between what's in my mind and what I'm able to notate.

yes, Joanna. This is why you should surgically attach yourself to VDP. ktxhbai

Some people have this attitude that she thinks she's doing this grand thing that's so much more serious than all other music or something, and that she thinks she's some sort of a serious composer, when that's just not true. So, yep, it's modesty.

I don't think anyone thinks that Joanna Newsom operates under the false pretense that she is a composer in the classical tradition tbh

Not in the classical tradition, no.

I think you are misinterpreting people being annoyed with slavish fandom as people thinking Joanna Newsom is all into herself.

― Bunsen burner, bubbles, IT'S ALIVE! whaaaaa-? (HI DERE)

People are mocking fans' hyperbolic reactions to her and her music, but they're also clearly mocking what they perceive to be her pretension.

overheard Newsom say "i'm like Beethoven but with unicorns" once ...

i'm mocking her addiction to unicorn blood

WSJ interview: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704479404575087500414704566.html

I think you are misinterpreting people being annoyed with slavish fandom as people thinking Joanna Newsom is all into herself

^^^^ otm

but i dunno, what the hell is wrong with being all into yourself? most of the greats are basically self-absorbed/egotistical, right? It's a requirement.

totally, i agree. my question is, why do innocent unicorns have to die for JN's bloodlust?

tears, not blood iirc

joanna newsom : unicorn tears :: mr que : ksh tears

Was there an unpleasant incident in September?

I read something about myself and it made me so sad.

nice work, ilx

joanna newsom : unicorn tears :: mr que : ksh tears

The Tears of A Sock is my favorite Smokey Robinson song

I think you are misinterpreting people being annoyed with slavish fandom as people thinking Joanna Newsom is all into herself

^^^^ otm

― Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.)

This isn't quite right. Yeah, bunch of people here are reacting to the hyperbole, but a bunch of other people do think her shit's pretentious.

I think for the most part it's just lolz to call her pretentious the way it was lolz to say "kate bush is for hippies" when hounds of love came out

I have said repeatedly for my own part that I think she's mad talented but the fun to be had from poking fun at her schtick & getting a rise out of her champeens is without peer

yeah gotta say that when this thread to a turn for amy grant, it turned a serious frown upside down for me. was having a cruddy day and then it was all lols. and amy grant. i think i might get this album though.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uijn_kate-bush-hounds-of-love_music

I think for the most part it's just lolz to call her pretentious the way it was lolz to say "kate bush is for hippies" when hounds of love came out

For some people on ILM, sure. But there's a contingent of people who actually do really think her shit's pretentious.

From a 1-star Amazon review:

waaaaaaaay too many words. You want this many words, Joanna, write a book. You can't get past the words to approach the music here - too many words. Relentless words.

How dare she!

get over it

people are going to hate stuff. enjoy her music and don't worry about what other people think

These same people are probably Fleet Foxes fans and can be safely ignored.

don't read amazon reviews about her

the more pretentious she is the more I like her

if she started some of these interviews with "I don't walk I get carried" I'd buy the new album

holy shit

i usually only read youtube comments for deep insights into artists i like

How are you going to perform these songs with all their parts and layers in a live setting?

Ryan wrote a reduction for his larger arrangements. We'll have two violinists and a trombone. Ryan will be playing tambura, guitar, mandolin, kaval (a Bulgarian flute), a recorder and a bunch of other stuff. Neal Morgan will be doing percussion. I'll play harp and piano.

And of course there will be pyrotechnics and the lasers.

http://x52.xanga.com/aa08354364108106328510/z75240871.jpg

okay that would be the greatest stage show ever

The Independent:

With her scratchy squawk, not unlike the noise a cat makes when there are fireworks outside, delivering words that sound as though they were chosen for their cuteness from some old-fashioned rhyming dictionary, she risks appearing irredeemably pretentious.

Joanna Newsom - Pretentious and Overrated

From snippets on Google & pages linked to from a search for "Joanna Newsom" pretentious:

Ugh, I can't stand her. The epitome of pretentious hipster bullshit music.

Partly I like it because it's pretentious as hell and it's got a goofy ren-faire cover

what part of "ignore stupid ppl" is difficult to grasp here

pretentiousness is kinda underrated

Not fretting about what other people think of her. I was just supporting my claim that other people think shit's pretentious.

think her shit's pretentious