|
Ys | 
| Artist: Joanna Newsom
Label: Drag City
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy Used: $2.54
You Save: $13.44 (84%)
New (32) Used (20) from $2.54
Rating:  100 reviews
Sales Rank: 4681
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 303
UPC: 781484030324
EAN: 0781484030324
ASIN: B000I2K9M4
Release Date: November 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Emily | | • | Monkey & Bear | | • | Sawdust & Diamonds | | • | Only Skin | | • | Cosmia |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Joanna Newsom's voice--a piercing flutter that's pitched somewhere between Bjoerk and a hand brake--is an acquired taste. But to the uninitiated, it's not nearly as impenetrable as her cosmic poetry or, for that matter, baroque music. The 24-year-old Californian harpist's second album is a five-track concept piece loosely based on its namesake, the mythological drowned city of the Bretons. We say "loosely" because she leaves plenty of room for digressions on meteoroids and birds flying into windows. While Ys was recorded by minimalist Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey), it includes lush string arrangements by Van Dyke Parks (Brian Wilson) and the final mix was done by sonic experimentalist Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Tortoise). The result is an album that sounds unlike anything else. And despite containing spectacularly beguiling songs that stretch out past 15 minutes, every second seems to drip with magic. You certainly don't get that with Ashlee Simpson. --Aidin Vaziri
Album Description
Comes in a special packaging with a booklet.
Album Details
Comes in a Special Packaging with a Booklet.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...
 One of the year's most amazing and original masterpieces November 18, 2006
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
123 out of 139 found this review helpful
It is the rare album that invites virtually no comparisons with any work that has preceded it, just as Joanna Newsom fills an utterly unique musical niche. By training a classical harpist, most of her collaborations have been with alt-rock figures. Many classify her as a folk performer, but she generally eschews the folk scene to direct her music at indie rockers. For instance, she has been a member of two different alt-rock bands, while YS was recorded by indie rock uber producer Steve Albini, though the strings were arranged by multi-faceted genius Van Dyke Parks and produced by composer Jim O'Rourke. The latter three names alone should gesture at how difficult Newsom's music is to describe.
My first exposure to Joanna Newsom came through her previous solo album, THE MILK-EYED MENDER, which while similar to YS was far less ambitious and epic. YS is to THE MILK-EYED MENDER what Van Morrison's ASTRAL WEEKS was to BLOWIN' YOUR MIND, simultaneously an ambitious expansion of the possibilities in the previous work and an attempt to produce something truly epic and unique. And the comparison to Morris is apt. Although YS contains only five songs, it clocks in at over 50 minutes, but in those 50 minutes there are no instrumental breaks. The only other performer I know who has recorded several songs that were as long as the ones on YS and featured singing through their entire length is Van Morrison. The songs on YS don't sound like "Listen to the Lion," but it might be the closest musical equivalent.
These songs are epic, theatrical, and expansive. And the word "unique" can't be applied too sparingly. The instrumentation alone sets it apart. Newsom's astonishing harp dominates every track, supplemented magnificently with Parks's wonderful strings, but the oddest instruments can sometimes intrude, like the banjo that pops up in "Only Skin" or the Jew's harp in "Cosmia." Some listeners, especially indie rock fans, are going to have a problem with the overall sound. No drums, no guitars, no bass, only occasional keyboards, but a lot of harp and strings. The result isn't something you can dance to. It isn't even something that you can hum to yourself. But the five songs here contain universes of marvelous, quirky, delightful musical ideas.
The lyrics are perfectly suited to the music and are frequently compelling, if not quite as overwhelming as the music. All of the songs are very strong compositions, which is an absolute necessity when an album features only five of them. The one thing that some people have trouble with Joanna Newsom is her voice. I can fully sympathize with this, because it took me a long time to accustom my ears to her singing. Like everything else, her voice is more than a tad different. Some people compare it to a harsher version of Bjork, but while her voice possesses some of the childishness that one sometimes hears in Bjork, some other comparison always seemed to be more apt. To me, she sounds very much like a precocious child attempting to mimic Billie Holliday. Listen to the way she mouths "darling" in "Monkey & Bear" and tell me that doesn't sound like a talented child imitating Lady Blue. It took me quite a while before I actually liked Newsom's voice. It isn't in any traditional sense a good singing voice, but once one accustoms oneself to it, it seems perfectly suited to her music.
This isn't an album for anyone. It is a ferociously sophisticated work. For want of a better term, it might be termed Alt-Folk. I was praising this to my daughter who is in college in another state. She asked what I would compare the album to. I said the closest might be Lorena McKennitt, but in fact she sounds as much like Lorena McKennitt as the latter does to Dead Can Dance, which basically means it is a worthless comparison. If you are an adventurous listener, love exploring something that is truly unique and different, I heartily recommend this album. For me it is one of the musical highlights of the year.
An outlier in popular music December 2, 2006
Giuseppe A. Paleologo (Riverdale, NY United States)
62 out of 75 found this review helpful
In the past couple of years, Joanna Newsom has been a well-kept secret. She was known by those who listen to Smog, Devendra Banhart, or the Pleased. You could catch the occasional review of The Milk-Eyed Mender on an alternative music magazine, or a video of her with Devendra, nothing more. Then, this album happened. Pitchfork gave it an outstanding 9.4 review. At the other end of the spectrum, Sasha Frere-Jones, of the New Yorker, wrote a glowing review. She is now a little-understood phenomenon, as the commonplace remarks about her music show, ie.: 1. that her voice [or music] is "an acquired taste"; 2. that she belong to the "Freak Folk" genre; 3. that she uses words like "inchoate" or "sassafras"; 3. that she sounds like Bjork. All of this proves that professional music critics are unimaginative losers, but does not illuminate Newsom's music. It's very hard to recommend an album like this, since it does not sound like anything I've heard. It's definitely not "baroque" like the Amazon official review states. And it's not certainly "freak folk", as Newsom herself repeats over and over. In fact, it's the opposite. While freak folk is repetitive and hypnotic, this music continuously changes melodies and rithmic signatures, and the lyrics require continued attention. Never in her records, concerts or interviews does Newsom sound like a stoned singer or a lovable primitive. She is in full control, like it or not. She openly complains about her voice being "untrained", but it is much richer, flexible and interesting than the often-quoted Bjork, who is inexplicably considered master of vocal technique. Newsom's is the rare case of a educated musician who has truly internalized disparate influences (among them, West African harp tradition, Debussy and Satie, Celtic music, Appalachian folk, Joni Mitchell and Vashti Bunyan, the precision of Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore, but also the sustained story-telling of Robert Frost, and all of the 20th century american confessional poetry), and made them into something completely new, occupying the uneasy space between high and low culture. She rescues ancient words on the verge of oblivion, to evoke images that are both feverish and distant. This song of cycles is the musical equivalent of controlled nuclear fusion. It's a rare event to hear about meteorites and pleaiades with a sense of marvel and no trace of irony, or that "last week our picture window produced a half-word heavy and hollow". Is John Donne one of her ancestors? Did H.W. stop by Nevada City, a few decades ago?
What propels this record is the unerring sense of melody, and its close connection to lyrics that are both rhapsodic and narrative. The rich orchestral arrangements help and make for a distinctive record, but I feel that the record would have been equally good had she been accompanied by her harp alone. Newsom will not age like those second-rate classical pianists and groups repackaging classical influences in their fast-aging pop hits (who can listen to Emerson Lake and Palmer any more, or Tori Amos???). Twenty years from now, this music will be as interesting, ambitious and anachronistic as it is today.
Joanna Newsom- Tearing Apart Couples Since 2004! March 13, 2007
Richard T. Kemph (Dallas, TX USA)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
I love this cd, and think it's one of the most beautiful, original works I've ever heard. The only problem is that my girlfriend hates it, and refuses to even sit in the same room if I'm playing it. How can this be?
Well first and foremost, it has to do with Newsom's voice. If you've never heard Joanna in action, I encourage you to stop reading this very minute and click on one of the songs above. Really. Do it. Because, chances are this will be the dealbreaker. The first time I heard a sample , I rated her voice in the bearable-to-slightly-intriguing range. Today, I'm rather fond of the way she warbles her poetic verses. But my girlfriend prefers nails on a chalkboard than to being within earshot, no matter how many times I try to subliminally influence her otherwise.
If you can get past Newsom's voice, the second hurdle requires making a mental commitment to listening to this cd at HOME. This is not the type of cd you can play at a party if you want to keep your friends. And the songs are much too long for the standard car ride unless you're anticipating traffic. So when you buy this disc, you need to mentally donate at least one hour of time to dressing up as Romeo or Juliet, laying down in a bean bag chair, and letting Newsom take you into another world. Well maybe you don't need to dress up, but it would really help with the ambiance.
If you can envision getting this far, I'd say this cd is a safe bet. The strings and instrumentation are outstanding, and you will no doubt come to admire the depth and breadth of each song. Each song starts off at a relatively slow pace before reaching a powerful crescendo that justifies the wait. Furthermore, there isn't a single dud on this album, which is rare for mosts discs these days(though it does only have 5 songs). However, if you can't get past the first two steps, I'd suggest you take my advice and stay clear of this one for your own sake and for the sake of your relationship (thanks Joanna).
 File This Under Appreciate, But Don't Really Enjoy January 22, 2007
billy
Joanna Newsom, along with Van Dyke Parks and Steve Albini has produced a genuinely unique album that is like nothing that is being put out in the realm of popular music. Ys. is a an album filled with lush orchestration, some beautiful harp playing, and pages upon pages of cryptic lyrics about comets, and animals, and all sorts of other seemingly mundane things. And then you hear her voice. She sounds like an old lady, or Lisa Simpson, or somewhere in between. After close to an hour of hearing her screech out cryptic lyrics over some pleasant orchestration, my patience began to wane.
Here is my problem with this album. I can admire the harp playing, the orchestration, and even the lyrics, but her voice just gets to me. Now I know i'm suppose to let this album sit for a while and let it sink in, and then i'm suppose to have some grand epiphany on the 15th listen about how great it is. I haven't listened to it 15 times, but I have given it a good 3 or 4 uninterrupted listens, and her voice hurts my ears. I can't enjoy this music with her warbling voice.
But I can file this under something that I appreciate for it's artistry and ambition, but I don't really care for myself. It is also a bit to much like a Rennaisance Fair for my tastes and the orchestration can move in to the territory of a soundtrack to a Disney movie on occasions.
It's hard for me to say that Ys. should be completely avoided. I suggest downloading Emily if you can and seeing how that song suites you. If you like it, then you'll like the rest of the album, if not, then don't waste your money on this album.
american beauty May 26, 2007
alexander laurence (Los Angeles, CA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is the most ambitious album of the year. Joanna Newsom came out of the San Francisco music scene almost four years ago. She was involved with the Pleased and played with Devendra Banhart very much in the early days. There was always a more serious classical influence in her music. She studied with Terry Riley and is familiar with the Avant Garde traditions in music. I did an interview with her in June 2003. I saw some of her early performances. It was obvious that she was more than a novelty act. When her first album came out she moved from the Banhart/Vetiver world to the Smog/Will Oldham world. Whole groups of people on the Internet were fascinated with Joanna Newsom. They thought she was some disembodied spirit. All these agendas were formed about what her music was about. Joanna herself was upset with some of notions that she was childlike. She said, "I am not innocent." Now we have the real album that she really wanted to do. From album artwork to the songs themselves: everything seems focus, arty, and blind ambitious. Of course this doesn't still to well with Joanna fans. They complain about the length of the songs. They are upset that certain "songs" are only one part of a longer song. The first song "Emily" is much like a song off of Milk-Eyed Mender. It's not we get to "Monkey & Bear" do we get a bit of the new sound. Van Dyke Parks is all over this. The vocals have a new maturity about them. "Sawdust & Diamonds" seems like the most narrative song, and the least musical. Much of this album is about the loss of the past. Dreams, memories, and animals float in and out of consciousness. Probably the most complex and difficult song is "Only Skin." This is an amazing record. It's like a whole other musical language. It's a record by the most original American musician now making music.
|
|
|
Proud member of the Celebrity Pro Network. Make sure you check out these other great Celebrity Pro Network sites:
Lyrics Database
Celebrity Blog
Celebrity Thing
Celebrity PC
Celebrity Latest
Portal Site
Travel Photos
Quotes
Flash Games
|
Is there a better
price available?
Find out:
|
|
|
|
