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$19.99 CDx3
$27.99 LPx3
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JOANNA NEWSOM
Have One on Me
(Drag City)
 "Jackrabbits"
"Esme"
"Good Intentions Paving Co."
Joanna Newsom's 2004 debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender, created a template for the young California folksinger that must have been awfully difficult to grow into. Based around her virtuosic classical harp playing, her relentlessly quirky singing that walked a thin line between stunning and grating, and a batch of wonderfully idiosyncratic songs that seemed to blend Appalachian traditions with Victorian fantasy and a touch of something utterly California indie to boot, that album was a huge underground hit and placed Newsom at the center of the burgeoning "freak-folk" scene, a descriptively-titled genre from which all the key players were adamantly determined to disassociate themselves. Newsom never concerned herself with such labels and let her music speak for itself when she upped the ante on Ys, her 2006 follow-up, produced by Jim O'Rourke with arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, crafting a sprawling, epic suite of songs that were lushly orchestrated, deeply ambitious and utterly transformative.
And so we arrive at Newsom's latest opus, Have One on Me, which builds on her first two albums by gracefully stepping on their heads, delivering a truly game-changing two-hours of music that is her best and boldest statement yet. I know what you're thinking: two hours, three CDs, 18 tracks, most clocking in at well-over six minutes, who has the stamina? Yet the most amazing thing about this wonderful new album is that despite its grand ambitions, the vast scale is overshadowed by its minute moments, as Newsom has created a complex quilt of an album that is meant to be taken in one panel at a time, and each panel to be savored stitch by stitch. Once fans get past the cover, which eschews Newsom's patented Victorian finery for a far more streamlined, almost flapper-styled deco look, the first thing her followers will notice is that voice -- what happened? Without losing any of her strong personality, the young singer seems to have found her true voice, a rich, nuanced and soaring soprano that embodies the raw emotion of her former style while leaving it sounding almost contrived. This is a voice of depth and beauty. And the songs, while often sprawling, sometimes meandering, always manage to find their way, with their own internal logic and reason, their own pacing that seems to say, "Relax, take your time, relish this moment." In fact, as this music could have easily fit on two discs, Newsom seems to be imploring us to just take our time with her new album, to enjoy it in small portions, and let any grander statements seep in over time.
Arranged by Newsom's touring bandleader Ryan Francesconi, the new album is less densely orchestrated than her last one, but there is a wonderful variety that keeps the sound fresh throughout. Newsom holds the songs together on her harp or piano, but there are subtle flourishes of everything from electric guitar to horns and strings to African and Balkan instrumentation, and while her classic bag of influences are all at play here, with her more mature and confident voice and the relaxed, natural sound of the playing and recording, Have One on Me owes as much to the '70s AM radio sounds of Joni Mitchell or the Laurel Canyon scene as it does to Celtic ballads, classic waltzes and rural folk forms. And influences be dammed, in the end this may be Newsom's most original and personal record, and it is a classic in its own right. [JM]
Order CD by Texting "omcdjoannahave" to 767825
Order LP by Texting "omlpjoannahave" to 767825 |
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