Joanna Newsom still blowing music away
Joanna Newsom is an absolute genius. There is no other way I can
describe the feelings I have for the music she creates. Three
albums into her career, she continues to expand her harp-based
sound with more ambition as a gang of musicians following her
lead.
I’ve mentioned her newest album
”
Have One On Me
”
many times in this space and I feel like it’s time that I
actually explain my love for the two-hour plus and three-disc opus
that came out in February this year.
Joanna Newsom still blowing music away
Joanna Newsom is an absolute genius. There is no other way I can describe the feelings I have for the music she creates. Three albums into her career, she continues to expand her harp-based sound with more ambition as a gang of musicians following her lead.
I’ve mentioned her newest album “Have One On Me” many times in this space and I feel like it’s time that I actually explain my love for the two-hour plus and three-disc opus that came out in February this year.
First of all this album is not for those who have little time to sit down and enjoy a record. The album is 18-songs long and only two of those are less than four minutes – most of the songs hover around the seven-minute mark. The songs are not only expansive in their sound but also in their storytelling.
Newsom is a master with words. The songs rarely have moments where they are just instrumental. Out of the album’s 124 minutes of music – maybe a miniscule 10 minutes are wordless.
With an album that long, the ideas and themes of the music are sprawling because they have to be. From heartbreak to falling in love to reminiscing about home and even losing a child, the lyrics weave a long and rewarding story.
But the lyrics aren’t necessarily straightforward. As different as the harp-based music is, the lyrics follow a similar path.
Perhaps the albums best moment comes at the end of disc one. “Baby Birch” is a long and slow developing song but once it gets to its peak there is no song like it.
It starts with a simple harp chord and Newsom pouring her heart out.
“I wish we could take every path. / I could spend a hundred years adoring you. / Yes, I wish we could take every path, / because you know I hated to close the door on you.”
The song adds hand claps and a duet near its back end that elevate the song above anything else that has come out this year. Winding throughout is a shimmering guitar that adds another layer to the album highlight.
The rest of the album is just as good. “Go Long” is a wonderfully sad but great song. Album closer “Does Not Suffice” is Newsom at her lyrical best and most poignant.
“It does not suffice for you to say I am a sweet girl/ Or to say you hate to see me sad because of you/ It does not suffice to merely lie beside each other/ As those who love each other do.”
The music itself has a basic core – Newsom mostly supports herself with a quiet harp.
As a whole, the album changed from the harp to a playful piano. But the songs take off into an aural atmosphere once the strings, slow-paced drum, banjo and horns seep their way into the songs. The songs’ influences bounce from folk to blues and even jazz – creating an eclectic piece of American music.
The orchestra pieces are moving and gorgeous. They swell and grow ¬– yet the songs are simple. And it’s her voice that allows the music to stay that way.
There are a lot of different ways to describe her voice and none of them seem nice – childlike, cat dying, etc. Really though, it’s a raw and unhinged beauty that you can feel her pain and happiness with every word.
Her voice is imperfect which is what makes it one of the world’s best. To me there is nothing worse than a voice that is supposed to be perfect. With a so-called “perfect” voice there is no personality.
The singer is gone – hidden behind what people expect and want things to be. Nothing is perfect and really no singer should be. Creating music should be personal, different and one’s own, but sadly in the world where it’s all about the money – artists conform to formula and what sells.
The greatest thing about Newsom is that she is truly her unhinged self – in the track “In California” she caws and in every song and almost every other note her voice fluctuates pitches. The playful voice might be the element that will turn most away, but for me, it’s the star.
If you can find a tolerance for her voice – which admittedly can be hard – and can sit back and listen, you would be in for a rewarding and wonderful experience like no other in music today.
Like I said – Joanna Newsom is a genius so do yourself a favor and give her a listen.
Connor Ramey can be reached at
cr****@sv**********.com
. E-mail him thoughts, comments or ideas for bands or albums to review in future columns. Past “My Thoughts Were So Loud” columns can be read online at www.pinnaclenews.com/life.
