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preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead ¤ milky moon ¤ • View topic - Excessive?
So Eureka there isn't a single song on the new album that you suddenly find "playing" in yer head? Not one bit of it stuck for you? I think this album is a departure for her, an attempt to be more popish. It seems for you she has failed in this attempt, but can you blame her for trying to be more radio friendly, more pop friendly. There are songs here that follow country sounds, that follow pop sounds that move in rock directions. This is a scatter shot album instead of some tightly controlled beam focus. This time she "cut lose" instead of carving her way down into deep story telling. Can you contemplate that she is growing here, stretching her circle of influences? I truely hope she does a covers album next, because i want to see her handle songs that are constructed in usual fashions, so that some of it may rub off on her and her next original album may have some chorus/refrain vs verse songs in it. Because my only complaint about her work is that some of it is starting to sound the same. I think this may be at the bottom of your complaint about this album, and i think your point is valid. I tend to disagree on the overall worth of the musical/artistic ability expressed in HOOM though and i can't understand how none of them move you?
dwain
The thing i like best about deciphering Joanna's songs...i'm always wrong.
I find it amusing that the world of Joanna fans is a microcosm of the world of music at large.
"I like this song or album, but I don't like that one."
"Well, I don't like either of those, but I absolutely love this one."
"Not me. I only like those where she yips like a puppy."
Almost every post or thread along this vein ends up being contentious.
"Think like I do."
"Never! My way is best."
"How could you think like that? I'm right, and you know it!"
Obviously, we each hear and understand Joanna's music differently. Unfortunately for everyone here, I lack the patience to re-educate 'the unwilling' to the only correct way of thinking...MINE! You will all just have to stumble along blindly and hope for eventual enlightenment.
Accountability? To who? Where did you get the idea that she is accountable to anyone for the music she makes? Unless she is under contract to produce something specific, I don't see that she has to answer to anyone for the quality, quantity or nature of her work. Since Drag City is her label, they might have been able to veto a 3-disc album, or object to the "popish" changes in her music... but they didn't. So, the only ways I see to hold her accountable, is to refuse to buy her album, or to boycott her shows. Are you suggesting that we do that? If so, then don't count on me. I love HOOM in its entirety! Not that I love all tracks equally, but I do listen to every one of them at some time or another. If you don't care for it, then don't listen. It seems pretty simple to me.
You don't consider this a discussion? What would make it a discussion...if I agreed with everything you said? Actually, I do agree with you...all of your complaints about HOOM are very likely true...for you. That's fine with me. You can not listen to the album to your heart's content. On the other hand, I differ with you in that I do like the album and the direction it has taken, and I will likely continue to find joy in it for years to come.
i dont think polli is being flipant with u Eureka, he is just pointing out the variety of opinions on any given musical subject. i think u are selling him short if u think he is just about being rude here. do u remember taking umbrage to my statement of "one and done" on the rubber band guys(srry his name escapes me right now) music. i enjoyed listening to it, but i really didn't think it worth following too closely. seems u are saying if this was the only joanna newsom offering to hear, u would be one and done with it? But it isn't her only offering, and we both know there is genius in her work, and just as u saw the genius in the rubber band guys work(and i don't quibble with that judgement), some of us still see the genius in HOOM. U seemed highly concerned that i was missing that genius(perhaps correctly ) and we here are sorry that u see no genius in HOOM. i am quite interested in discussion, because good critique of joanna's work helps her, there by help us her fans. perhaps if u were able to go deeper into your reasons for finding the work lacking we might come to a deeper discussion. i really doubt that you will find a more intelligent and engaged group online for this sort of discussion, than we have here. i can feel your frustration, but please be a little paitient with your ideas? instant results are an unrealistic expectation methinks, and despite your opening frustration, u are among friends
dwain
The thing i like best about deciphering Joanna's songs...i'm always wrong.
Based upon the limited information presented here, it appears that our tastes in music may be polar opposites. Finding pleasure in listening to a rumbling turntable accompanied by screeching tones or feedback is way beyond my comprehension, so it's possible that we may not share enough of a common musical language to allow a serious discussion. For now, I'll just remain silent in the background and try to avoid making further comments in this thread.
maybe no one wants to respond because you don't seem to want to have a discussion at all. you've come across as nasty and condescending and that's why i can't be bothered to answer your questions. but that's fine... make yet another post and badger me to answer your questions (merely so can prove your perceived superiority, i'm sure).
When considering the relationship between "excess" and Joanna Newsom's music, I think it's important to pay special attention to the theme of excess in the albums—in both Ys and Have One On Me, the notion of excess is a major theme/motif, as well as a word that many use to describe them. It's about the medium reflecting the message.
Ys was about one kind of excess, as she's mentioned several times in interviews—overabundance, overripeness to the point of decay. The album is bursting with lyrics about water, flooding, submersion, and also a direct nod to excess itself: "The hills are groaning with excess/Like a table ceaselessly being set." The songs themselves reflect this theme, by their sheer length, by their being full-to-bursting with words and musical ideas, by the near-vanity of a full symphony orchestra swelling behind the stark sound of the harp. The album is excessive, and is also about excess.
Have On On Me is about a different kind of excess—as the title/title track indicates (as well as Newsom in several interviews), it's about the excess of extravagant and decadent living, but also about how this kind of abundance can only come from diminishment of others. The phrase "Have One On Me" reflects this: by giving to someone else, you are reducing yourself. To take an example from each of the three discs, you can see this theme in the relationship between Lola and Ludwig in the title track, in Go Long's "terrible room" gilded with the gold teeth of the man's previous lovers and the palanquin "made of the many bodies of beautiful women," and in Does Not Suffice's list of fabrics and clothes which has made the narrator's lover think that she is less than she really is, which are revealed to be hollow finery and are taken away to leave only "The tap of hangers swinging in the closet." Once again, the theme is reflected in the structure of the album as well; in an act of almost ludicrous generosity, it's a triple album of over two hours in length—mightily appropriate for an album in which Newsom was dealing with the idea of being a woman/female performer and how "giving" also means "giving up" and "taking away from one's self."
My point? Yes, these albums are excessive—but they had to be.
(Of course, all of that would be moot if the songs weren't good—but with maybe two exceptions, I think all of them aren't just good, they're wonderful. But that's a matter of opinion, of course; whether you think the songs are good or not, though, I maintain that the "excess" of the albums is critical to their complete vision.)