Yahoo! Music [9/10]
Posted: 04 Jun 2010, 15:06http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/100301/33/222cy.html
Yahoo! Music Album Review
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
(Monday March 1, 2010 8:40 PM )
Released on 22/03/10
Label: Drag City
9/10 by Chris Parkin
When Joanna Newsom emerged with her 2004 debut 'The Milk-Eyed Mender', done-up like the Maid Marian of freak-folk and possessing a roughshod squawk, few people expected her to take flight quite as dramatically as she did on her stately follow-up 'Ys'. Assured in its ambition, elegant and lyrically nimble, the record, wreathed in beautiful melancholy and sweeping arrangements, helped her break clean out of kooksville.
It shouldn't surprise anyone to hear that Newsom's latest doesn't take the same massive leap forward as 'Ys' did from her debut - she's not superhuman, after all, however powerful and mystifying her cosmic lyrics. Instead, Newsom revisits earlier concerns, reconciling the grandeur of 'Ys' and her fully blossomed talent with the medieval blues and jazzy styles she attempted on 'The Milk-Eyed Mender'. And coupled with themes of love and moving on - all entwined with beguiling nature motifs - 'Have One on Me' sounds like the closing chapter of Joanna Newsom: Volume One.
Perhaps its three discs and 18 songs (that's over two hours playing time) suggests Newsom was keen to empty her closet here, to clean out the clutter in order to begin her next journey. Certainly there could've been an edit. But, really, these songs sail by as their author becomes increasingly less self-conscious - and that's what's new here. Even on 'Ys', with its stunning arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, Newsom's often uptight voice suggested that her eccentricity was just a little too determined.
Whether it's a result of the vocal-chord nodes she recently suffered and recovered from, or growing ease with a voice she once said was like trying to walk in high heels for the first time, Newsom sounds softer, calmer and more relaxed. Simply put, she's less shrill. And with Ys Street Band leader Ryan Francesconi at hand she's loosened up to sing prettily over a raft of rootsy styles infused with the influence of country music, Japanese folk and Middle Eastern ragas.
They're just as arcane and lovely as the songs on 'Ys', of course, but these are alive with an air of spontaneity, grooves and innovation. 'Soft As Chalk' is a playful, piano-helmed bluesy meander that tacks from melancholy to unhinged; the eventually rollicking 'Baby Birch' is what we've been hearing when Newsom cuts loose onstage - driving rhythms, handclaps and a terrific East-meets-West duel; 'Does Not Suffice' is positively catchy with a melody that recalls Faust's 'It's A Bit Of A Pain'. It may be epic, sprawling and too unwieldy a tool with which to prise open a place in the charts, but it's also nothing short of remarkable.
Yahoo! Music Album Review
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
(Monday March 1, 2010 8:40 PM )
Released on 22/03/10
Label: Drag City
9/10 by Chris Parkin
When Joanna Newsom emerged with her 2004 debut 'The Milk-Eyed Mender', done-up like the Maid Marian of freak-folk and possessing a roughshod squawk, few people expected her to take flight quite as dramatically as she did on her stately follow-up 'Ys'. Assured in its ambition, elegant and lyrically nimble, the record, wreathed in beautiful melancholy and sweeping arrangements, helped her break clean out of kooksville.
It shouldn't surprise anyone to hear that Newsom's latest doesn't take the same massive leap forward as 'Ys' did from her debut - she's not superhuman, after all, however powerful and mystifying her cosmic lyrics. Instead, Newsom revisits earlier concerns, reconciling the grandeur of 'Ys' and her fully blossomed talent with the medieval blues and jazzy styles she attempted on 'The Milk-Eyed Mender'. And coupled with themes of love and moving on - all entwined with beguiling nature motifs - 'Have One on Me' sounds like the closing chapter of Joanna Newsom: Volume One.
Perhaps its three discs and 18 songs (that's over two hours playing time) suggests Newsom was keen to empty her closet here, to clean out the clutter in order to begin her next journey. Certainly there could've been an edit. But, really, these songs sail by as their author becomes increasingly less self-conscious - and that's what's new here. Even on 'Ys', with its stunning arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, Newsom's often uptight voice suggested that her eccentricity was just a little too determined.
Whether it's a result of the vocal-chord nodes she recently suffered and recovered from, or growing ease with a voice she once said was like trying to walk in high heels for the first time, Newsom sounds softer, calmer and more relaxed. Simply put, she's less shrill. And with Ys Street Band leader Ryan Francesconi at hand she's loosened up to sing prettily over a raft of rootsy styles infused with the influence of country music, Japanese folk and Middle Eastern ragas.
They're just as arcane and lovely as the songs on 'Ys', of course, but these are alive with an air of spontaneity, grooves and innovation. 'Soft As Chalk' is a playful, piano-helmed bluesy meander that tacks from melancholy to unhinged; the eventually rollicking 'Baby Birch' is what we've been hearing when Newsom cuts loose onstage - driving rhythms, handclaps and a terrific East-meets-West duel; 'Does Not Suffice' is positively catchy with a melody that recalls Faust's 'It's A Bit Of A Pain'. It may be epic, sprawling and too unwieldy a tool with which to prise open a place in the charts, but it's also nothing short of remarkable.