¤ milky moon ¤

Hello!

There was a code going around during the Gamefaqs best videogame of all time voting competition: a simple ranking program where they give you a whole bunch of head-to-head choices from a given list, and based on your responses, calculates a ranking of your favourites in order.

I decided to modify the code to create a ranker for Joanna Newsom songs!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6upsq24o5cvov ... .html?dl=0

Simply download the file, and open in any web browser. It will give you a whole bunch of choices of two songs; you can click on the one you like better, or "I feel the same way about both." (Click carefully, since there's no undo option!) At the end, it will generate a list of your favourite songs, in order.

This is just for fun, but I hope you enjoy it!

My top 15—pretty accurate!

1 Have One on Me
2 Baby Birch
3 Swansea
4 In California
5 Emily
6 Sadie
7 Sawdust & Diamonds
8 Cosmia
9 Only Skin
10 A Pin-Light Bent
11 Autumn
12 Monkey and Bear
13 En Gallop
14 Go Long
15 Occident

this is great!!
it came out exactly as expected, I have a top 8 that I cannot rank and that's what showed up haha:

Only Skin
1 Have One on Me
1 In California
1 Go Long
1 Ribbon Bows
1 Sapokanikan
1 Divers
9 Emily
9 No Provenance
9 Kingfisher
12 Anecdotes
13 Good Intentions Paving Company
14 Cosmia
14 Easy

maybe next time I'll try to allow for no ties but eh.. it's kind of impossible

That was fun!
It required 219 pairings for me, and towards the end I may have been a bit hasty with my clicking finger, but this is how my list came out:

1 Only Skin
2 En Gallop
3 Divers
4 Kingfisher
5 Baby Birch
6 Emily
7 Sawdust & Diamonds
8 Go Long
9 Soft as Chalk
10 Flying a Kite
11 In California
12 Cosmia
13 Have One on Me
14 Inflammatory Writ
15 Goose Eggs
16 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
17 Sadie
18 Bridges and Balloons
19 This Side of the Blue
20 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne

I can't fault the top 10. Now I am going to have a look to see how this list, and those from solfatara and madpawn, compare with those derived from far fewer pairings in my most recent posting on the JNST5 thread...

OK comparison done. It wasn't especially enlightening: for the three of us, the majority of the songs are in similar positions, but there are some major quirks.

Madpawn - Sawdust & Diamonds was way down in 29th position in my analysis, but 7th as per the sorter. Likewise, Go Long was in 25th / 14th.

Solfatara - Yours had the closest match, but Sapokanikan, No Provenance and Kingfisher were all shown rather too low in my analysis.

Steve - Mine had the worst correlation. Goose Eggs (15th / 29th) is explainable by the fact that I've comer to appreciate it more and more in the weeks since voting in JNST. In California and Inflammatory Writ were also misplaced in my analysis.

I think that the Sorter gives a much better picture for any individual, because the votes you cast feed back into its system, in order to generate pairings that help distinguish between songs, whereas the pairings in JNST are driven by the group, and not tailored to the individual.

1 Monkey and Bear
1 Only Skin
1 In California
1 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
5 Emily
5 Have One on Me
5 Good Intentions Paving Company
5 Goose Eggs
5 Time, As a Symptom
10 Does Not Suffice
11 Kingfisher
11 Sapokanikan
13 Anecdotes
13 A Pin-Light Bent
15 Easy
16 Soft as Chalk
16 The Things I Say
18 Go Long
19 Cosmia
19 Baby Birch
19 Leaving the City
19 Divers
19 You Will Not Take My Heart Alive

Thank you for the comparative analysis, Steve, and I'm glad you enjoyed the exercise! The big discrepancy of the huge leap of Sawdust & Diamonds, I think, is largely attributable to my finally having seen her play it live last week in Tokyo for the first time—of all of her songs, it may be the most astonishing to see in person, so that made it rocket up my personal list.

My Top-15. Accurate as well. Nothing too shocking:
1 Peach, Plum, Pear
2 Good Intentions Paving Company
3 Time, As a Symptom
4 Monkey and Bear
4 Sapokanikan
6 Only Skin
7 On a Good Day
8 Goose Eggs
9 Leaving the City
10 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
11 Emily
12 In California
13 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
14 Go Long
15 Anecdotes

Thank you for your comment, madpawn. I agree that S&D is an astonishing piece of wor . The fact that she can play it live, just voice and harp and fingers working overtime, and recreate it on stage is genius in my opinion. The first couple of times I heard it on Ys I didn't realise there was no other accompaniment, so full is the sound she produces. It's also a song overflowing with emotion on both a personal and a universal level.

In short it is a song that richly deserves a place in my top three... along with about a dozen others!

Oddly, I was only thinking about S&D on a long coach journey home this evening: what a perfect song it would be for listening to on the road at night. I thought of a handful of others, by different artists, but the others all featured multi a instrumental accompaniment, and the one JN track I allowed myself was her alone.

1 Only Skin
1 Cosmia
1 Good Intentions Paving Company
1 No Provenance
1 Time, As a Symptom
6 Sadie
6 Peach, Plum, Pear
6 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
9 Go Long
9 Anecdotes
9 Leaving the City
12 Easy
12 Have One on Me
12 '81
12 On a Good Day
12 You and Me, Bess
12 In California
12 Occident
12 Autumn
12 Kingfisher
12 Sapokanikan
12 The Things I Say
12 Divers
12 A Pin-Light Bent
12 Erin

This is my top 25 according to the sorting hat. I think I would personally move Sadie and Peach, Plum, Pear, and Waltz, Anecdotes and Leaving The City up one spot and perhaps mark down GIPC and No Provenance one notch, but on the whole these really are my most beloved Joanna songs.

I listened to Divers on repeat during a few particularly stressful days at work this week so my votes might have skewed towards songs from it more than usual, but anyway, here's my top 20:

1 Swansea
1 Sawdust & Diamonds
1 Anecdotes
1 You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
5 In California
6 Emily
7 En Gallop
8 Bridges and Balloons
8 A Pin-Light Bent
10 Only Skin
11 Cosmia
12 Leaving the City
13 Baby Birch
14 Sapokanikan
15 Go Long
16 Autumn
17 Goose Eggs
18 Cassiopeia
19 Monkey and Bear
20 No Provenance

This was fun! Looks pretty accurate to me.

1 Only Skin
2 Emily
3 Cosmia
4 Does Not Suffice
5 Go Long
6 Sawdust & Diamonds
7 Divers
8 Time, As a Symptom
9 In California
10 Anecdotes
10 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
12 Sapokanikan
13 Good Intentions Paving Company
13 Baby Birch
15 Have One on Me
16 Autumn
17 En Gallop
17 Easy
19 Kingfisher
19 Colleen

Poor Three Little Babes, No Provenance and You and Me, Bess got no votes from me!

Hey, look who it is! Weirdelvis lives.

1 Monkey and Bear
1 Have One on Me
1 Jackrabbits
1 Anecdotes
1 Sapokanikan
6 Only Skin
7 Good Intentions Paving Company
8 The Book of Right-On
8 Peach, Plum, Pear
10 Sprout and the Bean
10 Easy
10 On a Good Day
13 You and Me, Bess
14 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
15 Emily
16 Kingfisher
17 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
18 Leaving the City
19 Sadie
20 Divers

Looks pretty right to me, except Sapokonikan probably above Anecdotes (but I think when the sorter paired them I went for the 'same as each other' option). Top three definitely right.

Good fun, thanks madpawn! Have you posted this on the Facebook site?

Wow. Nobody else has Jackrabbits in their top 15/20! Wtf! Jackrabbits is just so ... her, pure and distilled.

I'm not on Facebook but feel free to post it on my behalf!!

1 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
2 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
2 In California
4 Sadie
5 En Gallop
5 Baby Birch
5 The Things I Say
5 Time, As a Symptom
9 Same Old Man
10 Esme
11 Emily
12 Swansea
13 Anecdotes
14 Peach, Plum, Pear
15 Cassiopeia
16 Sapokanikan
17 Bridges and Balloons
18 Jackrabbits
19 Does Not Suffice
20 On a Good Day

I did it again!

1 Monkey and Bear
1 Only Skin
1 Time, As a Symptom
4 Emily
4 Have One on Me
4 In California
4 Anecdotes
4 Goose Eggs
4 Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
10 Good Intentions Paving Company
10 Kingfisher
10 Does Not Suffice
10 You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
10 A Pin-Light Bent
15 Sapokanikan
16 Soft as Chalk
17 Cosmia
17 Easy
17 Go Long
17 Divers
17 Colleen