Blender [4/5]
Posted: 02 Jun 2010, 11:17http://www.blender.com/guide/new/54349/ys.html
Joanna Newsom
Ys
(Drag City)
Release Date: 11/14/2006 12:00
Reviewed by Erik Davis
4/5
On her sophomore outing, the 24-year-old neofolk darling Joanna Newsom stretches her talents incredibly far and still manages to grab the golden ring. The five songs on Ys are utterly singular: long and loopy, ancestral and quirky, light on their feet but dense with fluttering rhythms and crazy-quilt images. Impeccably recorded and mixed — and analog through and through — the record sounds like a chant. Legendary arranger Van Dyke Parks has feathered Newsom’s harp with strings, marimbas and plunk-y banjos, while Newsom’s peculiar voice has matured and darkened without losing its jarring charm. Sure it’s over the top — the follow-up to her acclaimed 2004 CD The Milk-Eyed Mender is, after all, named after a mythical Celtic city, pronounced eees. But the emotional peaks are so sharp, the wordplay so juicy, that all excesses are redeemed. The weird waif has become a bard.
Joanna Newsom
Ys
(Drag City)
Release Date: 11/14/2006 12:00
Reviewed by Erik Davis
4/5
On her sophomore outing, the 24-year-old neofolk darling Joanna Newsom stretches her talents incredibly far and still manages to grab the golden ring. The five songs on Ys are utterly singular: long and loopy, ancestral and quirky, light on their feet but dense with fluttering rhythms and crazy-quilt images. Impeccably recorded and mixed — and analog through and through — the record sounds like a chant. Legendary arranger Van Dyke Parks has feathered Newsom’s harp with strings, marimbas and plunk-y banjos, while Newsom’s peculiar voice has matured and darkened without losing its jarring charm. Sure it’s over the top — the follow-up to her acclaimed 2004 CD The Milk-Eyed Mender is, after all, named after a mythical Celtic city, pronounced eees. But the emotional peaks are so sharp, the wordplay so juicy, that all excesses are redeemed. The weird waif has become a bard.