joanna newsom

yeah, definitely takes a bit to get used to the voice, but she makes some GORJUS music.

It took me no time at all to become a huge fan of Joanna's; I've rarely been so impressed by a female singer/songwriter. I first heard her when I played the video for "The Sprout and the Bean" on the Dragcity website at the end of last year. Her voice was a shock to me as well, but I got used to it remarkably quickly - around the middle of my first listen of the song. I really was blown away by her originality, and I bought her album immediately and loved it. And it has yet to get boring. I'm always getting "Peach, Plum, Pear" stuck in my head, sometimes when I haven't even been listening to it; I just wake up and there it is in my head. It's a bloody marvellous song. "We speak in the store, I'm a sensitive bore; is he markedly more?..."

I think it's a shame that so many people, even people who've heard her, think that she's twee or airy-fairy - hippy-ish. I don't think that's true at all; I think she's more Kristin Hersh or Stina Nordenstam than she is Tori Amos. She is similar to Bjork, but I think Joanna has her feet more on the ground, is more earthy (I like both Bjork and Tori by the way). There's a rawness to her songs that puts me in mind of dark and gritty folklore. And I think the "child-like" comments are valid, even though Joanna herself is wary of them. I think she's child-like in such a way that she's intimately aware of so much in life and opens herself to everything, and then is able to channel it all into her songs; I don't think she's naive at all. Innocent is maybe the right word, but not in any pejoritive sense.

As for her lyrics, I'm still struck by these, from "The Sprout and the Bean":

"And as I said,
I slept as though dead,
dreaming seamless dreams
of lead.
When you go away,
I am big-boned and fey;
in the dust of the day,
and in the dirt of the day."

I think I just fell in love

She reminds a bit of Kate Bush. but with harps. I love her voice, though.

She is bonny, isn't she? There aren't nearly enough pictures of her around though. And I think these love smilies look really good on this page so

yea, i saw her in columbus in march. entranced...

I listened to 'Have One On Me' this afternoon, and I loved it. '81 and Good Intentions Paving Co are two of the best songs I've heard all year. The fact that I hated what (little) I heard of Ys when it came out makes this album that much more of a revelation.

I think it's her best album to date.