Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (RIP blogs)

Grown Ups 2 pays for many beautiful things.

She hasn't made any more music because Ys is perfect and she knows she can't beat that.

so she didn't yet realize that when this thread was started?

She had to give it a go to confirm

Is it worth reading this thread to find out why blogs died?

I dunno? Is it worth reading the Dave Matthews Band thread to find out why they are so bad and hated?

probably not

Taking bets: last song on this will be a 25 minute autotune solo

― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Wednesday, 3 February 2010 11:08 AM (nine years ago)

lmao

10th anniversary earlier this week. Holds up really well, imo. A nice record to just dip in and out of when you don't have time to get into the full thing.

i evaded this record for so long out of laziness given its verbosity and length, but i came round recently, and i'm completely floored by this song - a take on the fable of bluebeard, and abusive relationships. four chords! i wish more music made my imagination come to life like joanna's does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx4U3Zbd1Rg

My early (1st) lockdown soundtrack. Really got into it having left it on the shelf for years. Definitely my favourite of her albums.

total masterpiece

yup

Shit and vague metaphor for life in general but it's one of those albums, due to it's length and the emotional investment involved in listening to it, that I don't engage with, that I 'save' for next week, next year, when I should be luxuriating in it.

Best record of last decade.

I have it on vinyl, so maybe that makes it easier to digest. I fond having one record on for a week and really getting to know it before moving on to the next one was what unlocked it for me. By the end of the process playing it through from beginning to end made much more sense than when I tried it previously...maybe it needs 'Listening Instructions' on the packet?

interestingly enough, HOOM is an album that feels easy for me personally to listen to in its entirety from front to back

HOOM is one of my fav ILX acronyms

HOOM's house?

HOOS house.

To HOOM It May Concern: I can't believe I saw Joanna Newsom perform only about a year ago. Feels like lifetimes.

It's amazing. I think Divers is better. I can't wait for her next.

I was slightly disappointed by Divers because with each preceding record she had made a big formal leap. On Divers the big change was... using electric keyboards a couple of times? The return to occasional orchestral arrangements drowned out a couple of the songs too (they sounded much better live with a small band).

i wish more music made my imagination come to life like joanna's does.

otm

Divers is slightly above HOOM in my ranking (Ys is #1). I love the range of instrumentation on Divers and I love every song. With HOOM I tend to pick individual tracks and I seldom listen to any disc in its entirety. Still the best album ever obv.

hard to believe Have One on Me is 10 years old now

Best record of last decade.

wouldn’t argue

(did the lol unicorns crew shitting up the first attempts to discuss this ever bother to hear to it because the zings are particularly misplaced for this album)

I’ve listened since it came out & I keep getting more out of it. feel like it’s still underrated -I didn’t love her until this one & was disappointed by the relatively muted response to it at the time. too much suspicion over its length and “ambition” (tellingly overused word in newsom criticism) despite the (to me) surprising accessibility & obvious greatness of the songs. then it got swept aside because spotify is all music ever now. I’m glad it has a solid cult & I hope it keeps growing

to me divers takes the emotional punch of however long HOOM is and compresses it into 50 near-perfect minutes. divers destroys me every time i listen to it.

I feel bad for ignoring later releases bc I’m still digesting this one (and I struggled with the previous two). I will try to rectify this

Have One on Me was maybe overambitious, but years later it feels like it keeps on giving

RIP blogs :(

Left I very much appreciate your posts about music in particular, I really need to give this another chance. The 6-piece band touring the Ys songs remains one of the most astonishing live events I've ever witnessed, the records always fell short for me but this album is really a different beast entirely than the 1st 2 so it deserves more from me

HOOM is non-functional for me-- half the songs are not even too long, per se, but lacking enough information to sustain them. I remember the first time I heard "Baby Birch" and was blown away with how slow it was, not in a lulling way, but in a static way. If this was a thesis statement, then sure, but it doesn't match the verbosity of the lyrics (or the comparative density of songs like "Good Intentions...").

The other half of the songs are spectacular, "Go Long" in particular is just miraculous kora/harp duetting and I'll never tire of it. Divers is a much more complete and satisfying release imho

The 6-piece band touring the Ys songs remains one of the most astonishing live events I've ever witnessed

Absolutely, and HOOM is very much a continuation of that small group dynamic that worked so well. It's that stripped down, intimate feeling that makes it special for me.

divers has some outstanding moments in "sapokanikan" and the title track but it's easily her weakest as an album. the synths on some tracks aren't really well integrated into the sound and "goose eggs" and "waltz of the 101st lightborne" cross some line into being grating in a way her work never had been before.

i need to go back to divers... i was absolutely wrecked by a breakup at the end of 2015 and could not align with its dwellings on mortality as a result of finding true love

i assume my inability to get into it is my own failing

My buddy played guitar in the Ys band. I've never asked him that many questions about it, but he did tell me how well rehearsed they all were, and while there was a tiny little bit of room for improvisation it was all pretty precise, as you might expect.

I wouldn’t say “Divers is the best album of the 2010s” except on the first Sunday of the month, when it really is

this year of being 27/28 has been the first time in my life that Divers has resonated with me because its three main themes -- love, time, and mortality -- have all escaped me virtually my entire life until this year

and with that, I'm really looking forward to growing with it!

i would say divers is the best album of the 2010s

(did the lol unicorns crew shitting up the first attempts to discuss this ever bother to hear to it because the zings are particularly misplaced for this album)

This thread is in my POX of ilx threads.

It's the record I'd play someone before I killed them, definitely.

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:52 PM (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've typed this before but if you have Newsom on vinyl it's fun to run them at 45 rpm

Pulled this out again last night and made it through about 3/4s of it before I crashed out (started with disc 2 tho). Made for a lovely listen with the first snow of the season sticking to the ground. "Does Not Suffice" is such a terrific closer.

9 years ago there was a moment when I shared Go Long with a young woman and it expressed perfect romantic tension.
Have One on Me was incredible from day one when the game was to agree on what was the best CD (still 2).
I haven't returned much to Newsom since Divers, after slightly over-obsessing with her (since Ys) but I can always return to her. Divers took a bit of time due to the crackling pastoral folksy village atmosphere and high-pitched register, but the compositions and highs are there: Sapokanikan and the slower more solemn songs: A Pin-Light Bent, the title song, the closer. It's interesting that she hasn't recorded a new album since then... I wonder what she thinks of it, if she feels like she has exhausted her style.
A lot of memories from travelling to London alone to see her (as a young man), then in Zurich through three hours of rain and traffic a Friday night and we got there late, and finally to make it up in a concert place in Luzern that is used for opera and shaped like a boat for perfect acoustics.

On a Good Day - the opening track of disc 2 - I think it is one of her most concise and beautiful songs

Horrible 70's album titles like I've Got My Own Album to Do

whatever