Little Delving
Beyond Here There Be Dragons
Say Hello To Joanna Newsom
Dec 12, 2006 07:25 PM Filed in:
Now Playing
I
LIKE her. I've been listening to her latest release
Ys,
and have decided I need to try to share her with some of you.
Granted, her music is not going to be to everyone's taste, but I
think if you give it a chance you just might be surprised how it
grows on you and how you end up responding to it. And if not, well,
at least you will have broadened your horizons a bit. And that's a
Good Thing. Here's a review from last year, and a video clip as
well. JB
Paige Newman
June 22, 2005, MSNBC.MSN.COM
She may look like a Gelfling straight out of “The Dark Crystal,” but listening to Joanna Newsom is like having a private conversation. If one of her songs were in a movie soundtrack it would be one of those Sofia Coppola films like, “The Virgin Suicides,” and the scene would be a girl staring out of a window just before dawn.
Her child-like, helium-flavored voice can either sound soft and sweet or like she’s punching the words out — she caps off certain songs with her signature high-powered yowl. She’s a bit reminiscent of Björk with a touch of Gillian Welch and Cat Power’s Chan Marshall thrown into the mix. You won’t find the thrum of a bass or drums in Newsom’s music, instead she accompanies herself on harp, Wurlitzer electric piano, harpsichord and piano.
Author
Dave Eggers waxed poetic about her in Spin Magazine, hoping that
she wasn’t as beautiful as her voice, because wouldn’t
it be great if a woman could be a quirky singer without being
conventionally beautiful. “If Joanna Newsom knows what's good
for her,” Eggers wrote, “she should be covered in
boils.”
In her album, The Milk Eyed Mender, Newsom creates small worlds in every song. Her words can be sly and silly, but at times read like poetry. In an interview with the Boston Globe, she talked about how hard she works on her lyrics, saying, “I know exactly what I want to convey, and then I obsess over saying it in a certain way.” In the song “En Gallop,” she sings about the seduction of the dream world over the real one, ending the song with the lines: “Never get so attached to a poem / you forget truth lacks lyricism; / never draw so close to the heat / that you forget you must eat.”
A
perfect way to start a cool fall morning, Joanna Newsom is well
worth checking out. She’s spending most of fall touring
Europe, but hopefully will swing back through the states sometime
this winter.
This Side Of The Blue
Inflammatory Writ
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
For more information: Dragcity.com
Paige Newman
June 22, 2005, MSNBC.MSN.COM
She may look like a Gelfling straight out of “The Dark Crystal,” but listening to Joanna Newsom is like having a private conversation. If one of her songs were in a movie soundtrack it would be one of those Sofia Coppola films like, “The Virgin Suicides,” and the scene would be a girl staring out of a window just before dawn.
Her child-like, helium-flavored voice can either sound soft and sweet or like she’s punching the words out — she caps off certain songs with her signature high-powered yowl. She’s a bit reminiscent of Björk with a touch of Gillian Welch and Cat Power’s Chan Marshall thrown into the mix. You won’t find the thrum of a bass or drums in Newsom’s music, instead she accompanies herself on harp, Wurlitzer electric piano, harpsichord and piano.
In her album, The Milk Eyed Mender, Newsom creates small worlds in every song. Her words can be sly and silly, but at times read like poetry. In an interview with the Boston Globe, she talked about how hard she works on her lyrics, saying, “I know exactly what I want to convey, and then I obsess over saying it in a certain way.” In the song “En Gallop,” she sings about the seduction of the dream world over the real one, ending the song with the lines: “Never get so attached to a poem / you forget truth lacks lyricism; / never draw so close to the heat / that you forget you must eat.”
This Side Of The Blue
Inflammatory Writ
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
For more information: Dragcity.com