¤ milky moon ¤

Brooklyn Vegan shared Joanna's new song/video and album news!
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/

October 23. fuck. yes.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

This is one of my favourites now.

I love the album art. Need to listen to the song some more......not sure about it at the moment.

Wow this is super exciting. I've just been getting into that tune the last few months as well. It's been five long years, this news has really made my day.

Bliss!

I'm so used to the solo piano version of Sapokanikan that hearing this version was pretty jarring at first! But after a few listens I got used to it and it's really nice. I'm curious what the other songs we've heard live versions of will sound like with other instruments! Part of me hopes that Divers is just harp and vocal because it's so beautiful already.

At last!

I was beginning to think that she'd retired, so this is good news. I had already started planning for JNST5, and the opening line was likely to have been "It is with a heavy heart that I laucnh the 2015 tournament, and again it lacks any significant new material ...". However, with this news, I will delay it until soon after the album releases. I am sure we'll get distortions as the new tracks will take some getting used to, but that's the fun of the whole thing.

Anyway, the main news isn't JNST, it's the long awaited new album, Divers, on 23rd October. Can't wait...

Claire, I completely agree with you, I couldn't help noticing all the ways the track was different to the live performance and while I love this studio version it also makes me appreciate even more what an astoundingly impressive live performance she made of it all those months ago... (My favourite little piano detail in the solo at the end of the track is changed which make me happy to know I'll be revisiting the live version often) I love that franscesconi and neal Morgan are still in the game and with dirty projectors being my favourite band these days I'm more than thrilled to see Dave Longstreth as a contributor!
I feel I might be sick with anticipation

Just watched the video for ther first time, for the song we used to call "Look and despair". Here are my first thoughts ...

SOUND - I really enjoyed the song. Of course, it's not brand new to us, as we've had a live version for ages, but the studio quality of the recording helps the appreciation of this complex tune. I am pleased to note that she kept the rather 'manic' build of the segment beginning at around 3:00 (although there's a lovely bit of 'crowd noise' at its climax in the live version that I think added something to that version, and is of course abselt here). I very much enjoyed the arrangement, and it's nice to hear some drums; I also note the return of the wind instruments towards the end: they put in an appearance late in the HOOM album, and someone on here astutely compared them to Led Zep (I think Stairway To Heaven was in mind): the connection still applies.

VISUALS - The feeling that I had when I watched this for the first (and so far only) time [I'm SO behind with work!] will probably never be repeated as I get used to it, but I projected a sense of 'unease' onto Joanna that here, for the first time, we saw her perform one of her songs WITHOUT playing any instrument herself. I'm sure she WAS playing, but the point is, we don't see it, which switches attention onto her singing and her appearance. I am very slightly uncomfortable with both of these, and I'll do my best to explain why:
singing - we all know that Joanna's is an unusual style, albeit a little less unusual than it was earlier in her career, but when it was presented as part of a whole, it seemed to be a perfect fit. Here, it stands out as the main element, and I hope that this does not attract criticism anew from those who love to knock her. For the record, I love her style, and am glad she hasn't attempted to bring it into the mainstream.
appearance - without doubt Joanna possesses a beauty that is all her own. It's not as unusual as her voice, but it still - to my eyes (although I'll admit to being the world's worst judge) - is a little 'kooky' with her ultra flexible features and a phsyique that manages to seem both delicate and lithe at the same time. Here, she is making a fairly conventional video, and in the first minutes, she seems to be a bit self-conscious, with the little skipping steps and twirls. yet, by the end, it seemed to me that she was much more comfortable with this. Now I am sure that the video was shot in a number of takes, and the order of shooting the segments that were used may bear no relation to the order in which they appear, so this transition from awkwardness to comfort is much more likely to be a function of my mind rather than of Joanna's.

I have also to admit to being very uncomfortable in making such personal observations public: I don't generally do it, and they have no validity except to myself. Furthermore, my comments may seem rather critical, but at this point I wish to say that there are only a handful of music videos by anyone that I am happy to watch over and over, and I have already added this one to that very select list.

I waited until this evening for a second viewing/listening of the track (can't do such things in the office). Again I had to do so via my iPhone. At some point I'll need to see and hear it on a better system. But the track still leaves me riveted and a bit giddy. I hear facets of her growing style from all three albums as well as some new touches. Fantastic ... I'm hitting as many dates as I can with this tour.

YAAAAAAYYYY

Oh so exciting!!

Like others, I really have a fondness (or a preference conditioned by familiarity) for the solo piano version... But the instrumentation is really nice.. I like the twinkly sounding thing going in time with the piano, and it's unexpected and cool how pop-y one section gets, and at the end, the woodwinds seem so appropriate... From "It's all right, and it's all over now..." onwards, I get tears/goosebumps every single time I listen to this song (heaps), and it was heightened this time with the pulsing red light from the fire truck washing over her as she sang, that was beautiful...

drag city also has track times... the album is around 52 minutes. we were spoiled with the triple album last time i guess haha. oh well. looks like all the new songs we've heard are on there. and it's cool that we're getting a recorded cover of same old man! i'm sure she'll do it justice

Anecdotes 6:27
Sapokanikan 5:11
Leaving the City 3:48
Goose Eggs 5:01
Waltz of the 101st Lightborne 5:22
The Things I Say 2:35
Divers 7:07
Same Old Man 2:26
You Will Not Take My Heart Alive 4:01
A Pin-Light Bent 4:26
Time, As a Symptom 5:28

Have a look at the Drag City website.
This is coming out on CASSETTE!!
And it's only $8.00 on pre-order.
How is that even possible? Does anyone manufacture cassettes any more?
Is it a Drag City joke?
I've pre-ordered. Hopefully a nice little collectors item.

I wasn't keen on Sapokanikan to begin with, but it's definitely a grower. The video has certainly helped me warm to it. Does anyone know what this song is about?

people, my people...coming back here after a decade of JN fandom to you (mostly) amazing human beings at moments like these, is like going back to a private oasis of thought and discourse that exists outside the quotes, 140 chars, pappacrapzi, Facebag and general cesspool of comments on the interwebz.

Thank you.

I agree with Wiggle ... it definitely is a grower. In the last year or so, I thought I'd grown out of enjoyment in general, and of music in particular. Then this came along, and - despite it all - I've already listened to it about 10 times. I will be disappointed (but only mildly) if that little bit of traffic noise at the end is missing from thge album version: it seems so integral to the song. And not in a Smith-and-Jones-Opera-Singer-Sketch sort of way!

Album artists site!
http://kimkeever.com/

Such a glorious song, I love it! The arrangements are a totally different colour to what I was expecting- it all feels so alive and energetic, and the build-up later on is too powerful for words. The vocals and harmonies are amazing as well.. I'm so excited to get to know the new narrator/s of this record