Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (RIP blogs)

i hear it's 3 cds

i like some wilco

yeah, i mean, it's kinda the same thing with Newsom, Wilco, Animal Collective , I dunno, other bands, too. Bands that get ridiculous praise for being groundbreaking -- ILM just has a knee jerk reaction to that stuff, I've found. Rightly, too! Nothing new. Just funny to make light of the "omg best band EVER" reactions.

i like how ppl on this thread have now complained

i) that this record has too many songs which have repetitive traditional melodies/forms
ii) that this record has too many songs which do other things and neglect traditional melodies/forms

More Barn!!

which, tbh, i. and ii. are kind of microcosms of the larger thing that goes on, where ppl say

i. joanna newsom is so amazing and otherworldly and beyond description
ii. joanna newsom is ehhhhhhh; lol unicorns

— & in neither case do we actually get at what joanna newsom is doing, or what the songs are

yeah i would love to actually talk about this record, but i think we'd need a new thread, and it would need to not be on ilx.

i think we talked a little bit about this record, it just in between all the unicorn jokes and the sidebar about post kshighway

totally worth giving it a go i reckon

i mean it's a pretty good record and all

yeah i'm just mad because i hadn't listened to it when people were actually talking about it. (tbh i haven't listened to the whole thing yet)

well you should, i am about to post spoilers

totally love wilco.

and, iirc, ksh isn't such a new poster, right? he was once "three hands clapping," or something similar. nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with being earnest on ilx.

rock on.

^^^why we can't talk about this record, exhibit no. 568

i'm sorry, b/c of me?

What We Talk About When We Talk About Unicorns

naw i'm sorry daniel, i'm just several weeks past the stage where i could enjoy ksh jokes

lol, no worries. fwiw, i wasn't trying to joke about ksh, just making an observation.

the problem may be that making observations about other posters has trumped talking about music on I Love Music

(unless it's Jedward)

Sort of about the record, have we heard any sales figures on this thing yet? I'm really curious as to how well this thing is selling. A week ago Monday when I bought it, the store I picked it up from had a huge, huge row of copies behind the counter - looked like maybe 90-100 copies at least. Stopped in same store yesterday and they had a note that they were sold out and should be getting more today. I'm wondering if this is the case at a lot of places.

(in the future, all ILM threads will be about Jedward)

The store I work at only ordered 2 CDs. Some of us there know this is a really wasted op, given how many people are asking for it. They need to order some vinyl pronto, or they'll really miss out.

i like how ppl on this thread have now complained

i) that this record has too many songs which have repetitive traditional melodies/forms
ii) that this record has too many songs which do other things and neglect traditional melodies/forms

― thomp, Tuesday, 2 March 2010 14:52 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I don't need strike-through to tell you what the common factor is there

witch

so should I pick up this record - I enjoyed her debut lp but didn't really see any reason to get the follow-up.

and, iirc, ksh isn't such a new poster, right? he was once "three hands clapping," or something similar. nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with being earnest on ilx.

― Daniel, Esq.

i posted for a bit in late 2007 as "three handclaps," then went back to lurking off and on until 2009.

i'm all up for starting a new thread for actual discussion of the record.

The only problem with that will be the hater chorus of "do we need ANOTHER Joanna Newsom thread?!?!?!".

respond with this:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h65/BrendonBaby/my%20stuff/unicorn.jpg

another option would be for those of us who want to discuss the record to just start doing it here, ignoring all of the inevitable interjections from people who don't give a shit about her music.

ksh is otm and slowly earning my respect ;)

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