It’s only very occasionally that I’ve come across an album that sounds so out of step with the times in which it’s created that it sounds startling, even shocking, like a smouldering asteroid that crashes through the ceiling of your house.
Often it’s something so odd, so next level that it seems like it can only have come from the future. But Ys, the second full-length album by prodigious folk musician Joanna Newsom, sounds like it has come from some dimly remembered past. Like old wives’ tales, these autobiographical myths are built from grains of truth and wisdom, a vivid, living, textured account of a memory glimpsed or forgotten, like a dream upon waking or a fable from a faraway place written a long time ago.
Joanna’s voice itself is very different from her first EPs, and has notably changed since debut album The Milk Eyed Mender. It’s deeper, with more resonance; less grating and wild, and incredibly affecting. The bold intelligence of the album opener 'Emily' is dizzying. Adrenalizing. Powerful enough to set your nerves on fire and make you forget where you are, who you are, for a while. It’s almost scary how seductive and pungent this intriguing mythology is - from sitting skimming stones at the riverside, to the raging sea, or the vastness of a comet soaring through the heavens, this song is magnificent in its lyrical scope. For anyone who ever stared into a bruised evening sky and felt at once terrified, amazed, exhilarated, moved... just alive... Joanna Newsom with Ys has written the wonder of being into labyrinthine tangles of words and set it to music.
The stories continue throughout the five extended pieces that form Ys, weaving a gentle web around you, cocooning you in sweet chiming harp and wriggling flutes, groaning cello, layers of warmth and harmony, never settling but eddying and constantly evolving, deepening, unravelling around your ears. The string arrangements are sometimes genuinely surprising, even jaw-dropping. They swoop, stab and swoon around the harp and the wandering storytelling, guided, intelligent and precise; sometimes wistful, sometimes playful, lifting you vertically or falling away unexpectedly beneath your feet. The sensitivity of the composer with respect to how the strings fit around the music is apparent: a huge amount of care has been put into arrangement of the songs. Rather than being an embellishment thrown on to lend borrowed grandiosity to the proceedings, the instrumentation flits marvellously, clinging, hovering and breaking free from the thrust of the song, changing tack and tone as if blown by a sentient breeze.
Ys is a truly special album that takes you gently by the hand and leads you through a distinctive magical landscape. Drift into it and you'll find your imagination dancing through wistful showers of falling leaves and kicking through tangles of knee-deep poppies, counting stars and wandering vast landscapes, lamenting a broken heart through abstract and taciturn poetry, or sinking back through the centuries to land gently back on your feet some time later.
It’s a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back.
Magnificent.
(see subject).
Album of the Year
End of story.
BRILLIANT review.
I was really hoping this'd score highly, and it fully deserves a 10.
Album of the year.
Breathtaking
A truly stupendous album, much more developed than her earlier work. How can 9+ minute songs be quite so compelling.
defo
worth a 10. i've never heard anything like it, and doubt i ever will again.
Ys!
That is precisely it. How the hell do these songs hold your attention for this length of time? But some how they do. You wait for that particular line, or that particular turn of phrase: "come back all the poppies are in bloom". Gorgeous.
ALSO
the packaging. fuck. it's so incredible. gold lined! illustrations! drag city must have been bankrupted by this record.
the best thing
is sitting down and listening, and reading through all the lyrics. consistently compelling, absolute beauty.
this is the best review
I have ever read on DiS - nice one Mr Brainlove.
This album is a masterpiece and manages to somehow improve vastly with every listen.
I am gutted that I couldn't see or hear any of her performance at ATP last year. Maybe next time eh.
i must say
i found her 'baby voice' a little tiresome on her first album, though loved some of her songs.
i will certainly check this out though on the back of this excellently written review.
ps.
ace review
yup
great review...it conjures up exactly how I feel when I listen to it. I hope she does a decent sized tour to promote it
i knew this would be good
but every1 upon every1 is giving this 10.
must be good!
Brilliant review
of a brilliant record. I actually bought Ys having never heard anything by her before, based on how excited everyone was on the DiS boards. So, like, thankyou. :-)
absolute genius so far...
picked it up yesterday and only listened to the first two songs (all be it about 10 times each). there is just so much to this album that i'm having to break myself in gently in case i miss anything
listening to it right now, so good..
good review too
You have 1 new email:
re:CD WOW! Order Delay: Ys by JOANNA NEWSOM
:(
I don't like the strings
*runs away*
AFTER HIM EVERYONE!!!
I have dogs. who has pitchforks and petrol and lighters
and I prefer milk eyed mender
*cowers*
Cowering = good pposition for receiving a good kicking
joanna newsom has turned us into a flailing mob! who'd have thought.
*recieves a good kicking goes away and cries but still feels smug about having FRONT ROW TICKETS!*
I piss in your eye
wow
this review and that comment are like some kind of dichotomous high and low point in my use of writen language. MOMENTOUS MOMENTS MY FRIENDS.
which was which?
only joking good review
wow
On first listen of Emily, it's already the best think i've heard this year.
It is A M A Z I N G.
strings
I do strongly agree, after many listens, I do like the record a lot, but *despite* not because of Van Dyke Parks's contribution. 'Emily' and 'Sawdust and Diamonds' are practically perfect but those strings knock this down to an 8.5 for me.
amazing amazing album
amazing
it's
amazing
i think
there's a good chance that the Barbican gig will be the best concert like ever!
wow
wow I must be alone here. I think it's bloated, self indulgent and a waste of van dyke park's talents
such is life I guess.
Loner.
Yes.
I disagree
van dyke is the worst part of the album
bad bad opinions
if that's your opinion
your opinion is WRONG.
not alone
those who don't like it aren't alone. its been massively overhyped by the media.i've yet to see one sensible review of it. i listened to it because of van dyke parks (i could take or leave newsoms last album). i liked the strings but thought the album was a bit prepostorous. i'll give it a few more goes and hope to get some enjoyment out of it.... but come on lets be sensible nothing is worth 10 out of 10.
Perfection is possible.
If you think it isn't I feel sorry for you.
u
r stupid
It's a good album
Will still take a lot more listens before I really decide whether it's really great, or just pretty good. It's going to be a 'cool' album to like and give glowing reviews though I think.
Nothing matches the pure brilliance of Peach, Plum, Pear though. Looking forward to the London gig though.
I wish I could 'get' this so much
But I can only take about two minutes maximum of a song before wanting to strangle her. I quite like those two minutes, but having that five times before a break? It's just cruel.
Can't she just 'ssh' for a minute?
I know, I'm obviously some intellectually inferior, tasteless listener...
opinions have taken a turn for the worse!
oh no!
allow me to rectify this: it's perfect i every single way and has made me cry several times. like a big, gay child with piss in his eyes.
it
made my day when i found out she had a song entitled emily.
I was even happier when i heard it.
great review
good review John
I don't actually think this is a ten though. a nine definitely but not a ten. there are some small flaws that stop short of it being quite perfect. it's still fucking beautiful though - maybe I'm just too much of a fussy bastard.
A very challenging artist
I'm not a fan (yet), but I didn't "get" Sufjan at first either. Sometimes artists come along who force me to listen to music differently, go beyond the whole "yeah, that's a catchy riff" attitude and get all zazen for a moment. I'm always searching for something that's different. Well, this is different all right. I know she hates the "freak folk" label, but it's exactly this kind of radical departure that makes the genre so fascinating.
I'm a believer in buying rather than illegally downloading...
...how old fashioned of me. So... is there anywhere I can preview this record online?
boomkat has a few samples
nothing like the real thing but still
I'll try and listen to this
So far I've found everything I've heard by her a bit too self-consciously "quirky" for my liking...
not convinced
i have to say, i'm really not convinced by all the hype Ys is getting. the milk-eyed mender was great, but this is so long and meandering and orcestrated to absolute death. it is a real patience tester. the album is whittled down to five tracks, all of a considerable length, made of many small parts and repeated divisions, a sort of cut-and-paste kaleidoscope of song that reminds me of recent efforts by The Fiery Furances. the downside of this sort of prolific creativity is an erratic, disconnected sound, one that evades simplicity and vitality in name of rather pointless musical over-sophistication. more dishearteningly, her harp playing has reverted back to the kind of safe, traditional, artless playing she used to complain about when promoting Milk-Eyed Mender. the only track I can withstand all the way through is "sawdust and diamonds". and why? there is no strings.
another thing...
if the label ever had the guts to release a sort "Let It Be: Undressed" style version of Ys I reckon it could have been a complete corker, maybe even worthy of the 10/10 grade. guess i'll have to wait another 50 years for that....
erm...
yeah the record company should totally do a shameless cash-in a la "let it be:undressed" and go totally against the artists wishes and original intentions.
good one.
the problem is
the problem is, the IS a very ambitious effort, and I think a lot of it is *nice* but it often borders on ridiculous...the lyrics at times are laughable, and as someone mentioned, what I REALLY fault this album for is the relentless vocals. She gives ZERO time for the instruments to breathe, it's just one long sing a long , that reminds me of musical theater. There's a lot of reasons why people THINK this is such a masterpiece, but I'd wager it's because they haven't listened to that much music and to the general indie head ho hum dude/girl, this sounds REVOLUTIONARY...
Disagree
I don't think that you appreciate your contradiction. It's quirks like her stream of unrelenting singing which differ from your ho hum indie. Fancy relating her negatively to musical theater, I advice a crash course in Sondheim.
easy!
i'm not going to deny "let it be: undressed" was a shameless cash-in, but as shameless cash-ins go it wasn't a bad one, and there's a fair sum who will agree. besides, i don't think miss newsom would be too outraged by such suggestion. she's gone on record as saying that her songs only take one particular form, and if she wanted, they could write themselves forever, ad infinitum, in all sorts of guises and arrangements. she always likes rewriting, and trying out old songs differently, on different instruments. maybe astipped down live album. that would be good. and for the record, the artist doesn't always know best: complete artistic control gave us the album "empire" by kasabian. don't forget that.
Yes but
no one could have saved Kasabian
a fab review
for an AMAZING ALBUM. its absolutely stunning.
Anyone who thinks
the strings don't "fit" the rest of the music must be listening to a completely different album to me. I honestly don't understand that opinion at all. They couldn't be more perfect.
in agreement
What a perfect Ode to an album.
Unbelievable
This is easily the best thing I have heard all year. And a very good review as well.
Already...
..this album is overrated.
Just because Van Dyke Parks happened to write the string section doesn't make it better than it is.
The strings sound awkward and half the time the timing of the songs is lost because of it, making it sound awkward and odd (and not in: 1. a good way, or: 2. an intentional way).
The album is a GOOD album, but it is extremely pretentious and Joanna definitely thinks it is more clever and deeper than it actually is (and so do most people who review it, it seems).
jamie,
you're dead inside
s'well shit
I've tried to like it
but in the end I deem it unlistenable. Her voice man...eugh.
yeah well you like keane
Wow, thats very insightful of you.
Yes I like Keane. That might be because Tom Chaplin doesn't have a voice similar to Spanky from The Little Rascals.
no, his voice is more similar to the sound of a dentist's drill
and his face similar to a big, FAT, ROUND MOON
Well judging by the front cover of Ys...
...I would say his face is a definite improvement.
I hated her at first too
stick with it
Fucking rubbish record.
I'm joking.
I'm gonna listen to her one day. I bet I'll like it.
Good album
not as good as the reviews suggest.
its so
very good, i love all the string arrangements. noice.
but the meteoroid is the source of the light...
*runs away*
Awesome
Truly, truly awesome. She played at least one of these (Emily I remember) at the Green Man Festival a couple of years ago, and it was mesmerising to hear in a dark, drizzly field. You were aware of the length of the song, but in no way did you want it to stop either.
like bjork on too much cocaine
really
idiot
i totally agree.
unbelievably flat, boring. end of story.
First Clipse and now this...
I hereby coin the term DISFORK.
the brilliance
of emily can't be denied, but am I the only one struggling to get into the rest of the album?
yup
haha
total obscurities there...
good album..
but i can't be the only one who absolutely despises the sickening way everyone wanks over joanna newsom. surely it's a bit early in her career for us all to be calling her a genius? all this sychophantic praise can really turn a person off, as well as being damaging for the artist to try to live up to as well. newsom is so going to burn out in the next few years because of it.
what do you want people to do?
lie and say it's bad?
no
but she's not that good.
:-(
Just played this album for the first time. Man, her voice is very irritating. I just can't get past it sorry.
Irritating voice? yes, I wish she sounded more like everyone else.
The strings are quite genius, anyone ripping on them clearly wants some generic coldplay bullshit background strings. The music is supposed to be challenging, it's not there to appease non-music fans like you.
Secondly - her voice is almost constant much like the harp due to the fact that her voice is used as an instrument, in constant duo with the harp, they play off each other. Listen even half carefully and you'll notice the resonance in her voice alter and change, bouncing off and intertwining with the tone of the harp comparable to the guitar-play in some of the Don Caballero material.
Why is it too early in her career to call her genius? So many bands have released only two records and ended up with that label, she's released two very challenging records, the newest of which is a huge step forward.
Basically most of you have too low an I.Q to understand, and thus enjoy the music with a proper intellectual level, stick with Park Life and Don't look back in anger, they'll please you much more.
Aside from all that I really hate this record.
god, you're a fucking cunt.
linking liking good music to a large IQ? gimme a break.
tit
Exactly what someone with a low I.Q would say.
'O fuk u u fukin cunt fuk, i fuk u up u fukk gay niga'
Nice one genius.