When we showed you guys the cover to Joanna Newsom’s Ys, some of y’all debated the image’s quality and authenticity. Well we all know the cover was for reals, but what about your thoughts about the artwork’s beauty? Venus zine sat with Joanna and aired your sentiments to the songstress in a piece set to appear in this Friday’s issue:
Some have found artist Benjamin Vierling’s painting cheesy. In a representative comment by one Stereogum poster calling himself Pierro [sic] Della Francesca, “The picture looks like it was done by the guy who paints the unicorns on Trapper Keeper covers attempting to mimic the style of Botticelli’s portrait of Simonetta Vespucci.” Newsom bristles at this sort of criticism. “I’m used to people making fun of me,” she said, “but it bums me out that anyone would ignore the fact that he’s a really good painter.”
And the article’s awesome opening line:
Joanna is sick of being photographed in the woods.
But why?! We love it!
Well like it or not, there it is: Commenters really are heard at Stereogum.com! And sometimes they piss off Joanna Newsom.
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i saw a cool pic in the new bust mag……she was holding a light in her hands….cusped around it…..like a lightning bug or fire fly…..
i’m really digging ms. newsom!
wah.
No commenting in protest…
album of the year, hands down. i listen to it multiple times a day. it took a bit for it to click for me, but once it did i had trouble pulling myself away.
album of the year, hands down. i listen to it multiple times a day. it took a bit for it to click for me, but once it did i had trouble pulling myself away.
now graphic designers in the comment section are being quoted. damn it.
there are many, many people who are good painters but the issue is taste, subject matter, vision, whatever. you can be a good painter and still paint complete bullshit. i love joanna newsom, but that album cover is a total miss. i’ve never had this huge a problem trying to enjoy an album because of a shitty cover. Ys is seriously a contender for whatever “worst album cover” list crop up.
joanna hear this!!!
Ys SUCKS
I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask Ms. Newsom to marry me.
out of curiosity, does anyone else find that odd little shriek thing she does on a couple of songs distracting? like the first word of the first line of Only Skin. what the hell possessed her to do that? are people into it? i find it a little infuriating.
Anyone else think she looks like one of those creatures from the Dark Crystal?
In a good way.
And I like her music.
In terms of taste, I think it’s definitely hokey. Maybe not Trapper Keeper hokey, but “Best in Show – San Lucas County Art Fair” hokey. In terms of sheer technicality, it’s good but not great. The likeness is well-rendered but certain passages seem either rushed over or generic or, like the landscape through the window, both.
I also think it’s annoying when Jaynoose complains that people single out the painting and her clothes in it as being “Renaissancey.” I know she’s said in interviews that the painting is supposed to be referential to some pre-renaissance northern school and that her outfit is nonspecific to any era, but come on. You wear a peasant blouse, a giant belt, and a dress with that neckline…don’t get cheesed when people go down the road that you paved.
That being said, the cover doesn’t like any other album released this year. And that’s kind of cool.
And THAT being said, Ys rules.
Gelflings! HA! “Gelflings help? Yesssssss! Skeksies are friiiieeends, yesssssss…”
gelffffffffflingggggg…
>album of the year, hands down. i listen to it multiple times a day. it took a bit for it to click for me, but once it did i had trouble pulling myself away.
Posted by: Matt A
you need to get out more.
seriously.
I encourage everyone to check my previous comment, where I did not misspell my name.
Over – Rated! Clap, clap, clap clap clap.
Seriously. I appreciate the musical arrangements, but you have to drop her champagne glass shattering voice out of the mix to make it even remotely enjoyable.
She’s going to get a lot of Album of the Year awards because she’s a Serious Artist. Whatever. The album sucks precisely because I can’t listen to her voice. And that, in a pop / folk / Renaissance Faire album, is a deal breaker.
Everyone who says that Ys sucks is incorrect.
yeah, the voice is pretty much the draw along with the lyrics for me. frankly the orchestral arrangements are just icing on the already delicious cake.
Less Raphaelite whatever to me is the very Joni Mitchell quality of it . . . it’s a very, very 70′s cover, down to having a bunch of “symbolism” and the lettering down the side. It’s not terrible, but it makes me think of Little Feat or something Hipgnosis would do.
1. Piero, you’re right! Venus, you reading this?
2. “Jaynoose” … ha. Love it.
Or Todd Rundgren. But yeah, agreed.
I have to say, it seems like she’s offended by most of what people have to say about her. Might I suggest getting a better press agent?
We got that sic in there for ya, Piero
And Jon: A capital idea! Let us know if Joanna gets back to you. We’d totally live blog your wedding.
Wait, so she’ll defend the painter but she’s tired of the photography? Hmmm…
Joanna will have the last laugh. While it probably won’t be on many top 10 2006 lists as far as the pop realm goes, it’s already in my personal top five. On top of that, the album will survive and possibly be even more regarded ten years from now.
For those who would deride the record, that’s fine. You’ve got a right to your opinion. But all the things that may irritate you now are the things that set Ys apart from everything else. Again, in ten years, I’ll bet 2006 goes down as the year where everything sounded exactly the same… except for Ys.
DwD
Fuckin’ stop saying album of the year album of the year album of the year. She’s cute in an artsy sort of way, and the arrangements are alright, however the shrieks are annoying if not completely pretentious. But she’s still young, if she learns what it is to fuse her folk roots with a pop sensibility maybe she’ll make something more accessible for the reluctant to call themselves “indie” crowd.
I’m sad that so many people are missing some of the best written music this year because Joanna’s voice is a bit squeaky for their tastes.
Poetics of this caliber have been missing from music since Guided By Voices broke up.
She’s awesome amazing. I love her. If you don’t, I can understand.
But let’s talk about this: I just saw her in Louisville on Friday and she walked off stage. Why hasn’t any one brought that up anywhere?! She was pissed off because her monitors weren’t working and the crowd was being RUDE and talkative. I felt really really bad for her. But she definately was upset, said “goodnight” and walked right off….
I’m the one who wrote the piece. First off, thanks Scott for putting that up there. Second off, read the whole article to find out what a great sport J-some is. That’s not just some plug, it’s the truth. Secondly, Mr. Pierro misspelled his name in the comments. I just printed it as I saw it.
OMG, total typos in that previous post. Who looks like an idiot who really can’t proofread? That’d be me. The above comment in no way reflects the caliber of my publication, pinky swear.
Yea I was there too and am surprised no one has brought this up anywhere, at least not that i can find. The show was at Headliners and the crowd there was awful. She played a few songs from The Milk-Eyed Mender and then said she was going to play all of Y’s. She ended up leaving about halfway through Only Skin and never came back. She kept telling the sound guys that she couldnt hear herself but the problem was never fixed. Also, the person running the lights dimmed them so much that during one song she had to stop early because she couldnt see the strings on her harp. But worst of all, the majority of the crowd was talking and beer bottles could be heard rattling throughout the entire show. The band members seemed to be in shock about how rude everyone was. Despite all of this, she and the band sounded GREAT. Too bad it turned out the way it did though.
it wasn’t me Joanna Newsom!!!
i love your music…especially that 12 minutes song ‘Emily’….hahahaha
it wasn’t me Joanna Newsom!!!
i love your music…especially that 12 minutes song ‘Emily’….hahahaha
I saw her in Louisville too and I didn’t think the talking at the back was loud enough to warrant her early exit. She said she couldn’t hear herself in the monitor but everything sounded fine, which the crowd kept telling her. Anyone else would just play on. Feist and Ted Leo had similar problems at the venue but didn’t make it a show-stopper. The only thing I could really come up with is that she’s some prissy pre-madonna. That, and maybe a good horse fucking.
I saw her in Louisville too and I didn’t think the talking at the back was loud enough to warrant her early exit. She said she couldn’t hear herself in the monitor but everything sounded fine, which the crowd kept telling her. Anyone else would just play on. Feist and Ted Leo had similar problems at the venue but didn’t make it a show-stopper. The only thing I could really come up with is that she’s some prissy pre-madonna. That, and maybe she needs a good horse fucking.
“OMG, total typos in that previous post. Who looks like an idiot who really can’t proofread? That’d be me. The above comment in no way reflects the caliber of my publication, pinky swear.”
I feel vindicated.
Piero – Aaaah! You’re so full o’ snark! I get you national attention and you snark me! Boo, hiss. Sorry I misspelled your fake name, OK?
Joanna N. is among the most selfless and conscientious performer I’ve ever known or seen. If she left early, something was hecka wrong, dood. Re the album cover and design, a coincidence:
Man I gotta stop reading blogs about Joanna Newsom. It doesn’t bother me when people dislike the music, only when they talk about it like they’re of comparable talent. If you don’t like her voice, that’s great but if that’s all you can say about it, why don’t you trust people with a comprehensive understanding of harmony and composition to not listen to your fickle analysis? Art is extremely subjective, but you cannot tell people they’re wrong for liking something. I shouldn’t be defensive, because it’s not as if you naysayers are contributing anything to modern music.
Joanna Newsom definitely wrote the album of the year, not because of her voice, or even the arrangements, but because of her lyrics alone. She’s sophisticated, classy, charming, and heart-warmingly adorable, and her voice and squeaks don’t seem pretentious at all, but rather natural and genuine, reflective of her over-all aesthetics. And you can’t accuse of her being untalented because you don’t enjoy her voice, if you can’t handle something different, maybe she’s not for you, which is okay, but to criticize her for it is rather rude and quite ignorant.
Loved her first work TO PIECES. Love her voice. Heard it for the first time live in Lawrence KS tonight. Found the songs to be wildly self-indulgent and non-linear to their detriment (and god, do I love non-linear). I need to get the lyrics sheet and the album and crunch, crunch, crunch. Newsom’s fans say “album of the year”. I must be missing something and am intending to find it.
can anyone post her interview from venus?