New Joanna Newsom Album "Ys" Due Nov 14

Last I heard of "Only Skin," it was about 14+ minutes long, a high-wire feat of derring-do filled w/ striking imagery and memorable melodies, stretching her style to see how much it can take. If you don't dig the literary aspects of what she's doing, you might snap off the stereo in disgust, but unless the production fucks this thing up I'd say she's challenged herself and was not found wanting. Possesses the same sense of ineffable longing that got "Sprout and the Bean" stuck in my craw. If you've listened to enough of her stuff you can sense her rhythms burbling through the lyrics, even if the song's unheard:

rowing along among the reeds, among the rushes
i heard your song before my heart had time to hush it
smell of a stonefruit being cut and being open
smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking

and when the fire moves away,
fire moves away, son
why would you say
i was the last one?

...

and the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland
but his hand in my hand made them pale and harmless
and down in the lowlands the crops are all coming; we have everything
life is thundering blissful t'wards death
and the stampede of his fumbling green gentleness

Not sure how fitting an introduction this album will make for newbies, however. Like, where's the single, man?

I mean... she's twee enough already so I really hope this doesn't emphasise the fairies & unicorns side *even more* because what's convinced friends of mine of her greatness is the live shows being (allegedly!) really raw and unpolished and more compelling by far than her studio arrangements.

I will definitely make an effort to hear this though.

his fumbling green gentleness

...

yeah I didn't come close to digesting the songs; I was struck so dumb at the sheer endurance involved in that performance it was impossible to follow the plots music-wise or lyric-wise(between the stretches of anxious boredom lets be honest). Jim O'Rourke yay though.

makes me think of the 20+ minute Cerberus Shoal songs from a few years ago, where a female voice goes on and on and never ends. oddly moving and trance-inducing.

Seriously though, it sounds like this might be the one I finally like. I've tried unsuccessfully with the others.

What's next?
Producer: Brian Eno
Tape Op: John Goodmanson
Gofer: Thurston Moore
Footrubs: Flood

I think if we all grab one of these we can have her body strung up by dawn tomorrow.

But then you'd have to deal with Smog going all Charles Bronson on your ass...

Does Callahan basically nail every female artist loosely related to the new folk movement?

I don't think I want to know about Bill screwing, I have an established image that I don't want ruined (teeth gnashing through flesh, girls held down on hardwood floors, etc.)

add HEAT and BREATH emanating from a sea of sweaty motherfuckers equals ANXIETY. That I enjoyed it as much as I did is a testament to her (enjoyable, on the whole)performance - seriously - but I was just fried at that point. When's the next Arthurthingy anyway Jay?

http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=xxx&query=search&interface=ticketweb&newhps=1&search=arthurnights&x=13&y=13

WTF?

or a big pile of over-indulgent bolls. we'll see. i'm hoping for the former, natch.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/ys.jpg

http://www.company-q.com/images/ren%20fest.jpg

http://www.ren-fest.com/pic25.jpg

http://biology.creighton.edu/faculty/nolan/Black%20RenFest-CUweb%20.jpg

http://i.b5z.net/i/u/555708/i/alexxushostcontest_ezr.jpg

If you crack the code Kit Williams comes to your house and gives you a solid gold CDR of the album that was buried in soft peat on Bodmin Moor.

A good friend of mine played in the Ys Street Band. I asked him, given all the skill on stage, if there was ever much room for improvisation within or around all these winding, intricate songs, and he said (not surprisingly) not really, but that there was often room for interludes and long intros that worked out OK. One time I saw her (with a different band) and while she was ... tuning the harp? Or something else time consuming? Anyway, her guitarist at the time basically took requests for metal songs he then performed in a classical style. Just a bit of fun.

the version of "cosmia" on ys street band is a prime example of extending things out a bit like that.

And with Divers, Newsom achieved it and surpassed it, with exquisitely wrought arrangements from Muhly and Longstreth, her fantastic list of collaborators, I think it is a stunning achievement and I frankly cower before it.

- fgti

i echo this completely; divers is intellectually and emotionally head and shoulders above any music i've heard in the past 20 years. the fact that she can write and perform at that level while also seeming funny, self-aware, and even remotely approachable is almost crazier.

ugh I can't believe "ozymandian" kept me from erm diving in for so long, it just seemed so brutally thesaurist right off the bat even though it is exactly the right word and well-deployed upon subsequent examination

hah, tbh having that song drop first didn't move any needles for me. i think it works best as sequenced in the album.

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

here's "time as a symptom" into "anecdotes". really wonderful

ugh, I want to see one of these shows

She seems looser than normal in these new clips, like she's treating it as rehearsal.

'Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie' is what split it apart for me - my way in. I agree that it's perfect. The lyric that gets me most (because it makes me think of my sister for obscure reasons) is:

And some great bellies ache with many bumblebees
And they sting so terribly.

And there are some mornings when the sky looks like a road which is pure Joni.

Christ, I filled up just typing those out.

I've seen her twice live, both in 2007 - at the Albert Hall, which (I guess unsurprisingly) was a bit mannered but still extraordinary, and at the Green Man festival as the sun set over the mountains.

ugh I can't believe "ozymandian" kept me from erm diving in for so long, it just seemed so brutally thesaurist right off the bat even though it is exactly the right word and well-deployed upon subsequent examination

For some reason when she does this stuff I don't mind it, but with the Decemberists I find it insufferable.

She seems looser than normal in these new clips, like she's treating it as rehearsal.

I suspect it is! I know she took a break from touring/playing live, but I also think she took a break from playing, period, focusing on being a parent. It's been a while since she toured solo, hasn't it? So I suspect she's getting her chops back in order before she finishes work on a new album. Have the setlists of these multi-night engagements featured much in the way of new material?

xp Oh yes, also "it feels so good to be a rose" is a lyric where you see the end of it coming before she arrives (what else is going to rhyme with "nose"?) but the image is so specific that you can't actually think she's gonna go there but she does

Something very nice about the usage of rather banal-sounding words like "rose" and "road" for intricate purposes.

I thought for a while that "Ozymandian" might be her own coinage. It helps to know that it's a real word.

for an embarrassingly long time i thought she was saying "you're patty hearst" instead of "you're badly hurt" in 'go long'

there hasn't been any new material played i think but hopefully there'll still be an album next year

robin pecknold was posting some photos of jn (and her harp!) on his instagram some days ago and now he's been posting a lot of studio photos. i am hopeful that either she will be on the next fleet foxes thing or he will be on her next thing. seems probable as they have toured together a few times.

XP totally totally forgot I went to see her in the Royal Albert Hall in 2007.

FYI this concert from the Divers tour is really spectacular and a great recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHVHEQRbFC8

Thanks, this is gorgeous. It's amazing how many great songs she has at this point (and I would claim, not a single dud.)

thanks for the link

i'd love to read a JN poll.

lamonti, thank you so much for the link! The uploader also posted high-quality recordings of four other shows (Munich 2005, Alabama 2006, Washington 2010, Paris 2011), it seems it's his pet project:

I wanted to make available a collection that was entirely high quality audio, that spanned all of Joanna’s career so far, and was easy to find and enjoy via stream and/or download. It was a project that was surprisingly challenging, but very rewarding. Particularly when it comes to “Live at Bottletree Cafe”, as I was eventually able to clean up the digital clicks and pops in ‘Emily’, and patch over the audio glitch in ‘Monkey & Bear’, making this fantastic bootleg even better for the next generation of Joanna fans.

They all seem to sound pretty fantastic.

YouTube playlist with all 5:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMhu9WD0R5W2UtpGX_GaLML8HyWwgg0_f

MP3 download:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QqTI0GZx8BcnPQM4MZAg1nafZtYm2fb3

I remember listening to the Alabama 2006 bootleg shortly after Ys was released. What a trip down the memory lane!

I too would love a JN poll! I have no idea what track would win... prob “Emily” or “California”? No idea

"Peach, Plum, Pear" maybe? Even fans whose fave album isn't tMEM would place that one, surely.

Sawdust & Diamonds

Yeah it's a tough pick between her epics ("Only Skin"), her bagatelles ("On A Good Day"), her ballads ("Crab, Clam...") and her pop tunes ("The Book Of Right-On"). I feel like my vote would favour her long pieces, even if I care for them less, but because I respect her ambition, and they seem to be, really, the most important aspect of her overall vision.

I wouldn't mind a POLLANNA NEWSOM, my top 5 would be all the tracks from Ys, which has not one wasted second on it, and is an exhilarating ride from start to finish.

(A poll would also force me to reckon with the rest of her discog, which I've felt less compelled to explore because Ys is already so expansive.)

i would kinda want to wait for her next record but otherwise yes i'm in

yup same

Would love and actively participate in that poll!

Does she have a new record on the horizon?

idk i'm just hoping

putting my wish out into the universe here

God, I love that version of "Bridges and Balloons" from the Boise concert.

i'd hope and sort of expect a new album is due next year, and a bit after that a poll would be lovely. "sawdust & diamonds" would be my #1 probably but after that i've got no clue, she has too many masterpieces

I think Monkey and Bear, while still a masterpiece, would place a little lower. But the other 4 Ys tracks could easily go Top 4 in some order, akin to Remain in Light's side 1 on the Talking Heads poll.

Milk Eyed Mender tracks are hampered by her voice on the actual album, which is part of why these live shows are such a treasure. If folks haven't heard the Ys Street Band EP, it's got a gorgeous Clam Crab. Does anyone know if she was/is playing Colleen on this recent tour? That's a great one that can be overlooked.

"monkey and bear" is one of my favourite lyrics of hers but is certainly the weakest musically on Ys. not bad by any means just not quite on the same level as the rest of it

I think "Monkey And Bear" is marvellously arranged and recorded, but it's the most RennFaire of all her songs; the medievalist melody is rather trite-- and weirdly familiar, now that I think of it? I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually borrowed from Tallis or something. It's an amazing creation, really, definitely the most daringly un-hip thing she's ever done.

"goose eggs" goes further in that medieval-ish direction and that's why it particularly grates on me, "monkey & bear" at least has its wonderful climax

The instrumental parts of "Kingfisher" have always given me this renfaire vibe as well, tbh.

I'm glad she embraces it instead of shies away. I mean, the first song I ever heard by her references "Cair Paravel" in the first verse, so,

I can bear a lot but not that POLL

I'd be up for a poll. Confession: I've only listened to Divers twice. If nothing else, this would give me the kick up the arse I need with that.

I missed this Larry King interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvRs2g81muQ