New Joanna Newsom Album "Ys" Due Nov 14

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I said Thank you

O_o

I do have considerably more to say about all of this, but I'm going to save it for the end-of-year CoM round-up.

Man, the one thing that just hits you in the face about her is that she is just absolutely FLAWLESS (well, as far as not hitting ONE wrong note and remembering all those changes and lyrics....).

But why does she have to play the entire album in order? It's tiring to stand and listen to, I'm sure it's tiring to actually play. Why not mix in some of the "short" songs?

jesus god best phrase ever

I'd kind of liked JN's stuff, and many tracks off of Milk Eyed Mender had touched me but not enough to endure repeated listenings. But I can kind of understand where Jim "Music Is Back" O'Rourke is coming from here. It's not necessarily meant as a pretentious statement, more the essence of musicianship and composition. Here is someone who might have had her shot in the dark during the Freakfolk boom of 2004 and disappeared along with many other one-timers.
But as Edward III says, I'd like to echo the thought of her being quite a bit more than a fad. JN is way way above what Devendra and his cohorts are doing this (I say this as an advocate of Banhart). This is a proper album. It's a work of art which has obviously taken an extreme amount of blood, sweat and tears, so-to-speak, and I think this is what O'Rourke is trying to pont out. This isn't any old tossed off indie here-today-gone-tomorrow rubbish, it is totally unique in it's aspect and I haven't felt so intrigued and bewildered yet tempted to listen again and again by a new release since Autechre's "Confield".
Weird comparison? Okay, but someone upthread said they felt almost as if the music was above them -- as if they wished it was a bit more down to earth. I have to call bullshit on this to be fair. If it was songs about washing your hair or getting down on the dancefloor, it would be someone else, not Joanna Newsom and you have to be ready and willing to open up to her fairy tale world if you're going to enjoy it. Banging on about the music being ungenuine is ridiculous too. You can either sing about kitchen sinks or you can be a method actor or a story teller. In this case, it's the latter two. If you don't like it then go back to your Smiths albums and stop complaining.
This is a wonderful, intricate, storybook of an album and I haven't quite felt this drawn and willingly happy to listen to certain tracks again and again in quite some time. Especially in this age when music consumption often means that I have little time for releases that I really should give more time for.
To be honest, it's still over my head - I still don't know what the beef is with the monkey and the bear, despite it being my favourite track (mostly cos of VDP's excellent string arrangements), but fuck it - that's not what it's meant to be about. This is defo a big grower.

(?!?!)

the album is OK, but it's the reaction to it that drives me bats

(1) You'll either love it or hate it.
(2) It's impossible to "get" unless you spend a lot of time with it.
(3) There's something to "get" at all.
(4) People who don't like it aren't listening close enough.
(5) Newsom is a flake.
(6) Newsome is a fake.
(7) Newsom is a genius.
(8) Because a lot of people who like the album have funny haircuts and tight t-shirts, Newsom must be catering to them.

but please don't mention joni mitchell or mary margaret o'hara (that was on a blog somewhere). those two make/made vital, emotive, inspiring music whereas newsom sounds dry, precocious, suffocating, tiring, lifeless etc. there are no surprises. the more i listen to it, the clearer it becomes. there are bits of tunes there, that's right but the whole thing just doesn't hold together. flawless might be actually quite to the the point but it is the kind of perfection with no breath in it.

btw her speaking voice in the video is different. at least an octave lower then when she sings. and she doesn't come over precious and pretentious at all in the interview bits. she has got something about her. maybe she makes that kind of over the top music because of her own insecurity? in any case it is just not my thing as i already said upthread.

Stay with me for awhile
That's an awfully real gun
I know life will lay you down
As the lightning has lately done

Failing this, failing this,
Follow me, my sweetest friend
To see what you anointed in pointing your gun there

Lay it down! Nice and slow!
There is nowhere to go, save up
Up where the light, undiluted, is weaving in a drunk dream
At the sight of my baby, out back:
Back on the patio watching the bats bring night in
- while, elsewhere, estuaries of wax-white
Wend, endlessly, towards seashores unmapped

Speaking of freshman poetry class...

I wrote this about 400 posts ago, and I think it's been borne out. Some are going to be instantly turned off when they hear something like, "estuaries of wax-white wend".

ihttp://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b280/dotcomstock/2DSC01477.jpg