Joanna Newsom's Ys
A few minutes from Joanna's "Only Skin," live at McCarren Park last Thursday, can be viewed at YsTube. The album track is seventeen minutes, so consider it a lo-fi teaser.
You can download a live MP3 of "Only Skin" -- and other cuts from Ys -- at the lovely J-New fansite Milky Moon.
Here's the album cover (anyone know the artist?) and tracklist...
1. Emily - 12:07
2. Monkey & Bear - 09:29
3. Sawdust & Diamonds - 09:54
4. Only Skin - 16:53
5. Cosmia - 07:15
Ys is out 11/14 on Drag City.
Posted at 6:10 PM
Tags: Joanna Newsom
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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simonetta_Vespucci
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The artist is called Benjamin Vierling. I'm a little dubious on the cover... it plays too much into the kind of things her detractors like to pin on her - fairytale, Renaissance-faire obsessions, etc... Plus I just don't like the style a whole lot.. it looks like the cover of a pulp fantasy novel, and as somebody pointed out, as a portrait it looks strangely unlike her. Still looking forward to the album though.
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fiona apple has a new album out?
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LOVE the album cover! I hope this album is great, but those long sounds sound rough. either way, im excited to hear this. thanks for the update.
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cringing at that album cover. hoo. oh well, i still love her. more fuel for my fire when i compare her to kira from the dark crystal, as well.
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her voice makes me feel like i'm shitting glass shards.
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Damn, she looks good...in kind of a RenFair sort of way. Still, I worry that she's wandering into some sort of minefield.
Also, in more Newsom news, I point you all at this: http://www.shortpantspress.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=20. It's a book based on her lyrics. Pretty much gets it right, I think.
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That cover's atrocious and makes me think I'm going to hate the music. She must be trying to shoo away listeners and/or carve out the aforementioned RenFair niche.
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Joe, you ARE shitting glass shards - see a doctor immediately.
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I like the cover, at least in concept if not in execution. The whole Ren-faire thing is only problematic to me when people take it too seriously. This is pretty obviously meant to be playful and silly.
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rather weary of the album cover, wishing i got a hard copy of the Milk-eyed and got this one from iTunes when it's ready. I saw the McCarren show on Thursday. i was a bit disappointed. Traveled two hours to see her and would no doubt do it again, but more than half the set was new songs which you can see are long. Guess i was just looking for the comfort of singing along which is so easy to do with her music.
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So, I've finally tracked this down. I'm really not sure about it all. I adored her first album, but this...I'm only on Sawdust, to be honest, which I'm liking, but the first two songs just strike me as consisting of nothing more than a single dull line repeated over and over and over and over again. Almost every fucking line ends on the same boring resigned note. I'm hoping this will grow on me so much, because I love the woman. Myabe I'm just not getting it.
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Well don't ask me how, but I got my hands on a promotional copy of Ys ($14.99). The "cover" everyone seems to hate so much is only a slip cover piece of cardboard that you can throw out (if you are crazy). the inner sleeve art (and actual cover) is pretty fancy and lends to the folk genre by asthetically looking like an old leather book with gold leaf on the edge of the pages (I didn't notice this until now)The cover has a "wheat" crest that has "Ys" bordered in the middle ,a harp above the title among the wheat, . The GREAT part about the inner liner notes book sleeve thing is that it has all the lyrics written out for someone to critique accurately. The album art is made to follow the leather book outside by making the songs separated like chapters and the text is accompanied with small lithograph illustrations. The painting, by Benjamin A. Vierling, is in the middle of the "book". I like this high renaissance style portrait because of all the symbolism splattered all around and in it some of which are easily deciphered while others are lost in obscurity. What really has me thinking is the crow with the whole cherry in its mouth.
The music is surprising. It's like all the demons and devils where exorcised out of J.N. after milk-eyed mender and replaced with (ready?) electric bass, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, accordion, marimba and a whole orchestra with cellos, violins, violas, basses, oboe, flutes, bassoon, trumpet, French horn and clarinet. I feel like, and stop me if you think I'm wrong, J.N. is going for a more "produced" sound. This album reminds me of Tori Amos's Album "Boys for Pele" (specifically a part of "Only Skin" sounds a lot like Tori Amos's "Blood Roses") which is a great album but not for Joanna. However, her lyrics are intricately immaculate fractured stories. Just like the other songs in the J.N. library. I admit to missing the gritty raw nature of her previous works but I feel like this album can grow on me.
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I would like to comment about my comparison to Tori Amos's Boys for Pele album and Ys by stating that this is a personal generalization of my first listen of the album.
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oh no, I agree with you. It definitely reminded me of Tori Amos, this album. The orchestral elements sound very similar to 'Yes, Anastasia' from her 'Under the Pink' album...
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I admit to finding a leaked copy of Ys on the web (thanks to Pitchfork) several weeks ago. Though many of you seem off-put by the length of the songs and the elaborate orchestral arrangements, just be patient! I was worried about the changes, too, at first, but after listening to it casually for a while it has come to be stuck on repeat. It's worth it to actually sit down and pay attention to the lyrics.
And personally, the fairy tale qualities of her exquisitely written lyrics are what I love best! But while the album is just as full of playful imagination as her previous works, it is far from lacking in depth and maturity. I simply cannot emphasize that enough.
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i think the cover is beautiful. i think her lyrics are beautiful. i think her compositions are beautiful. she is a beautiful individual. the fact that she has the "renfair" thing going on is kinda dumb but I can see where it comes from, the abundant references to Greek mythology, Narnia and the Cosmos will do that to you, but that is just a part of the greater and highly grown up sound that she has
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