At Home with John and Debbie

Joanna Newsom’s The Milk-Eyed Mender was a revelation. I was initially put off by that voice, but they’re great, unconventional songs, the harp arrangements are wonderful, and the voice grows on you. I think it’s a classic. A desert island disk.

I was excited, therefore, by her followup, Ys, especially seeing the gushing previews and reviews in the press.

Alas. I want to like it. I don’t think I do.

There are five long songs; rambling streams of conciousness. Where the songs on The Milk-Eyed Mender had taut, if unconventional, structure, these songs are more loosely constructed. Certainly there is repetition of themes both musical and lyrical, but it is often so complex that I struggle to make sense of it.

There is beautiful language and imagery, and a particularly like the part in the first song, Emily, where Newsom recalls how she was encouraged to put facts about astronomy into verse, the better to remember them:

That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor’s just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that’s devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite’s just what causes the light
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived
And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee

Edutainment!

The real problem for me is the strings. The big difference between this and Milk-Eyed Mender is that the new album has orchestral arrangements by Van Dyke Parks. He worked with the Beach Boys, apparently. Mostly, he contributes swooping strings, with the occasional bit of woodwind. It swamps the harp: that’s bad. The harp part is simplified, presumably to accomodate the other instruments: that’s bad.

When I played it to Sean, he said it sounded “a bit Disney”, in a pejoriative sense, and I agree. Especially in “The Monkey and the Bear”, literally a story about a monkey and a bear going on an adventure, particularly puts one in mind of a (slightly surreal) old Disney nature film, complete with cheesy orchestral score.

At least I still have The Milk-Eyed Mender and memories of two fantastic Joanna Newsom live concerts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 15:55 and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.