Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006) (1 Viewer)

[ann post]

If I didn't vote for this, i would in retrospect. The best thing about this thread is all the 'I lasted X amount of time, I can't hack it'. This record is so challenging that the cognitive dissonance kicks in immediately for most people.

I'm also going to say its one of the best albums I've heard in my life. Whatever quirky seam she was mining that spawned the first few releases, she dived head first into and expanded into a form that nobody was or is doing. I love the van dyke parks stuff. its comical, cartoonish and then at times really sensitive and beautiful. The songs are just in a form people are not used to and I'd say that might be the hardest part for most people. Her voice is class, she has said countless times in interviews that every time she goes to sing she does something that her voice supposedly wont let her do, its a punk mentality.

Anyways, towering album, probably not for everyone but if you let yourself get over the unfamiliar instruments, the unfamiliar songs structure and the unfamiliar orchestration and the unfamiliar lyrics, its really, really rewarding. And still challenging.

 

[Hector Grey]

It's "challenging" in the way putting a drill in your ear is "challenging". And it's not the orchestration, song structure or lyrics that form the insurmountable barrier for me. It's when she starts singing and I begin to wonder if the washing machine is fucked.

 

[kavanelli]

To listen to this album correctly you need to be driving a 1986 Datsun Cherry (sunburst yellow only) you need a blaupunkt 10 CD changer in the boot with all 10 cds being a copy of this album and play random. Drive between Glenamaddy and Westport on a wet summers night.

 

[ann post]

It's "challenging" in the way putting a drill in your ear is "challenging". And it's not the orchestration, song structure or lyrics that form the insurmountable barrier for me. It's when she starts singing and I begin to wonder if the washing machine is fucked.

Classic cognitive dissonance

 

[GO]

and @hugh's and @GO's and @Shano's ...

Stop looking for an excuse to be depressed!

Theres nothing depressing about having a bit of humility

 

[Hector Grey]

Classic cognitive dissonance

My mind says: stop the squeaking. My hand turns it off. Seems to be working fine.

 

[egg_]

expanded into a form that nobody was or is doing

This

It's about as original as rock/pop gets without being weird.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

If only it was good it'd have everything

 

[Jim Daniels]

If only it was good it'd have everything

She's amazingly good.

I brought my sister (who isn't that familiar with her) to the recent gig in the Olympia. I was slightly worried how she'd take it, but after every song, she gave me that oh my God, that was amazing head nod. She declared her a genius when it all wrapped up... and she is.

Doesn't mean you have to like it of course.

 

[rettucs]

She's amazingly good.

I brought my sister (who isn't that familiar with her) to the recent gig in the Olympia. I was slightly worried how she'd take it, but after every song, she gave me that oh my God, that was amazing head nod. She declared her a genius when it all wrapped up... and she is.

Doesn't mean you have to like it of course.

can you double-post this please Jim, so I can WINNER it twice (once for you, once for yer sis)

 

[rettucs]

PS: fair play to you. I'm a selfish prick. I'd never bring someone to a JN gig. Wouldn't want the distraction of wondering if they liked it or not.

 

[rettucs]

or any other gig for that matter

 

[Jim Daniels]

She's amazingly good.

I brought my sister (who isn't that familiar with her) to the recent gig in the Olympia. I was slightly worried how she'd take it, but after every song, she gave me that oh my God, that was amazing head nod. She declared her a genius when it all wrapped up... and she is.

Doesn't mean you have to like it of course.

(Lol)

 

[ann post]

Sugar club? 04?

 

[travispickle]

I've yet to listen to Ys. I hadn't listened to JN before but I got her new album on the recommendation of a friend whose taste/opinion I'd usually trust; he was very effusive of her greatness/talent etc., and also how lovely the whole vinyl packaging was, so I went and got it and was interested in hearing her music as so many people seem to really love it. I've only given it two spins at most so far, but I have to say so far the new album isn't really ringing my bell.

She seems very much to be a bit of a "marmite artist" and that's ok. It seems that if you're into her, you're REALLY into her, but the appeal has yet to hit me. Maybe it will, but if it doesn't it doesn't. There's lots of other interesting music out there for me.
Anyhoo, enough shiteing on out of me - I shall listen on!

 

[dudley]

I have no problems with this really, it neither offends or excites me, just grand. Usually I abhor her voice, but it works here. Quite enjoying the orchestration etc.

Not sure I entirely understand the hate this is generating in others, it's just a nice slab of grand.

 

[coast to coast]

Not sure.

I love this record though I haven't listened to it much recently. The thing about the string arrangements was mentioned earlier. These were all done by Van Dyke Parks and as I understand it, the way it worked was that Newsom recorded all the basic tracks first and then they were sent to Parks to add strings to them. Some people love the results and some hate it. There is certainly something of a disconnect there.

Looking forward to listening back properly this afternoon ...

As far as I know the arrangements by Parks were done in a fairly intensive collaboration with Newsom herself. I've seen interviews with a couple of her collaborators (Dave Longstreth talking about his arrangement to Time, as a Symptom on Divers and Parks himself) describing the process as having copious notes from Joanna about what she wanted and her being very exacting about what she had in mind and what she wanted Parks to give to the songs.

 

[coast to coast]

This is one of my favourite albums of all albums. I had a strange way into it, in that I'd listened to mp3s of performances of songs that were after MEM but were similar in length to MEM songs, which then it turned out were parts of the songs here – the only one that sticks in my head now is 'Be A Woman' which became a big part of Only Skin, but I'm certain there were others. That meant there were hooks to grasp onto at the time, but I'm not really certain it needs them.

There are barely any records worth listening to over and over again that expose their brilliance on first listen. This record is so stuffed with detail that I think there's still stuff I'm a little unclear about.

As much as I love MEM, the leap up in quality, not to mention the leap of faith in your own ability taken to make a record like this isn't matched by many musicians ever.

I don't think Joanna's voice has ever been an affectation, it's just gone from being pretty unskilled at the start to be really, really skilled through practice and training. I've never found it the least bit annoying, the ticks she has are so minor a part of the music, if you're making no effort to get past them, you're really missing out.

 

[GO]

I'm with Dudley.Its grand.

Certainly dosent annoy me..nice background music for surfing the web

 

[rettucs]

This thread went pretty much as I envisaged it would. It was always going to be a very polarising album, even from as far back as when we first touted the idea of the album club. It generated a bit less discussion than I thought, but the points of view put forth were predictable enough.

I don't know why there seems to be no middle ground with this album. People love it or hate it. Though, maybe I do know, and maybe comments in this thread are fairly indicative of the reasons. A couple of people mentioned it as being 'grand' or something decent to have on in the background. Thats a start I suppose, but I'd be interested in the opinions of those people after spending more time with it.

The majority seem to have taken one of the 2 differing 'extreme' viewpoints though. Either its the greatest thing ever, or its the worst thing ever. The reasoning behind the latter viewpoint would appear to be the inability to connect with her, admittedly, unusual voice or singing style and, because of this, the album gets dismissed out of hand. There hasn't been much by way of actual musical critique from the naysayers, which is a shame really.

Overall, I don't care. I understand @Cornu Ammonis reaction completely, and whereas I'd react the same way about other albums, I've never felt the need to try and justify this one, or defend why I like it. I've mentioned previously that this is 'one of' my favourite albums ever. I'll go out on a limb here and say, definitively, that it is my absolute favourite of all time.

But, thats not really an important point. I don't place this alongside *other* music for comparison purposes. To do so would be like comparing Oscar Wilde to Stephen King. Yes, they're both writers, but its apples vs considerably inferior apples. And thats how I see Joanna Newsom compared to almost anyone else out there. She is on another level completely.

I often wonder, if she was someone who existed 30 or 40 years ago, made her music, then retreated from public view, how she'd be perceived. The fact that we do know quite a bit about her, and that shes this incredibly normal and decent person, just like many people we know, deprives us of an added air of mystery about the music. If we were left to decipher a lot of this stuff by ourselves, I think the fascination levels would be off the scale.

Cornu mentioned that her lyrics could stand alone as poetry. I absolutely concur, though I always felt it was poetry without the constraints of poetry. Its almost some kind of cross between prose and poetry. Without exception the songs are without any kind of discernable or recognisable form, and that can be disconcerting for some. But in reality, whats happening here is that the songs are being written with a flow from her stream of consciousness. And why compromise what you want to say or tell by applying some structure based restrictions? I love that she hasn't done that.

This is story telling at its finest. Its telling a story, the detail of which we don't fully get, but we enjoy the hell out of listening to it.

And I don't even fully get what a lot of it is about, or what a lot of it refers to. But I don't feel any need to. I love that I can listen to it for the 100th time and still get something new from it. From an album thats 5 songs long. How many albums can that be said about? For me, not many. There are blogs and blogs and blogs out there (such as this one about her most recent album, Divers - Blessing All the Birds - I know JN herself reads that particular one, and seems impressed by what they come up with), where indepth discussion takes place about the lyrical content. To be honest, I have no interest in going to those levels of extreme. It would take the enjoyment out of it.

I recently read this interview with JN from around the time Ys was released; Joanna Newsom | Pitchfork

This bit

"It's difficult for me to make too many intelligent comments about what you brought up because the song really is a very personal reaction to real life. "

is in relation to the song Emily, and its a fantastic answer to the question that was answered (which was a stupid question, really). That kinds of sums up why I don't think getting to the nub of what the songs are about, is all that important. They are deeply personal songs to her, and to try and understand them withouth fully appreciating her and her relationships with other people and/or the world, is somewhat futile.

Musically, the album cannot be faulted. The VDP arrangements, in my opinion, range from sublime to incidental. Very pronounced or dominant in parts, barely there in others. The harp playing is always beautiful.

And on the 'contentious' issue of her voice, I really don't get the criticisms. I'd guess it refers specifically to her tendancy to 'screech' at times. But to me thats an accentuation of the vigour and the passion of her vocal, and thats exactly how I relate to it. She has plenty of other songs where she doesn't exercise the full range of her vocal, where she utilses the more subtle end of her range, and it evokes a completely different kind of emotion, though no less powerful.

It can't be denied she has great vocal range. Listen to 'Only Skin, where she harmonises with herself. Its a thing of real beauty. Anyone at the recent concert at the Olypmia would have witnessed it in person. And in a way, she almost doesn't care how she sounds. The primary goal is to convey the emotion of the song. Just watch her when she sings. Watch how she contorts her face sometimes. If thats what it takes for her to deliver what she wants to deliver, thats what she's going to do to achieve it.

Ys is an emotional rollercoaster for me. Its not an album I can just put on and listen to at any time. The right mood is needed. Since this came up in album club last week, I've listened to it twice. Thats far less than any other album that's come up so far. Yet this is my favourite album ever? I guess this, to me, is another manifestation of how and why this album is so different from anything else. Overall its one of my top 2 or 3 listened to albums over the past 10 years. But its not something I can listen to unless I can give it my absolute full attention.

I bought it on CD when it first came out in '06. At that point I wasn't familiar with her work. I hadn't heard MEM and most certainly was not at the famous gig in the Sugar Club in '04. I bought it on the back of reviews I'd read about it. And I most certainly did not connect with it straight away. I did like 'Emily' instantly, but found the rest of it to be a bit of a chore. I do recall how I finally fell in love with it. It was during a bout of insomnia that lasted several weeks. In the middle of the night, in that state when you're halfway between sleep and waking, I'd listen to it. I did that every night, probably only half disgesting what I was taking in. A while later, I listened during the day (maybe when at work), and recall hearing it as a completely different album to how I'd remembered it from before. And I was utterly smitten with it (and with her).

Somewhat flippantly, I suggested that listening to 'Emily' and 'Only Skin' out of sequence, might help when listening for the first time. Maybe it would, but I don't think it would be giving the album its due respect. It needs to be listened to, and viewed, as a single piece in my opinion. One example of why this is the case is Bill Callahan's short, but significant contribution. Its comes in the last 10 minutes of the album. At that point its just been you and JN. She and the harp, with the string accompanyment. But mostly, just you and JN. Then, Bills comes in, subtle, yet not that subtle with 'COLD, MY BONES', and it commands your attention completely. And that passage of the song, that 2 or less minutes of the album, will always stop me in my tracks, it will make me sit up and listen, and, without fail, it will raise the hairs on my neck. It is such a beautiful, powerful piece, but to get its full impact requires listening to the album through to that point.

I'm not going to patronise people who don't like this album by saying I feel sorry for them. But I do wish everyone could hear it the way I hear it. There have been very few works of art, of music, of literature, that have evokes such strong emotions in me (and I'm pretty cold-hearted at the best of times). Di Profundis would be one. The Grapes of Wrath another. Y's by Joanna Newsom, another.