Joanna Newsom and Ys

I’m inventorying complaints about Joanna Newsom’s Ys as I listen. Not mine, really, but just the norms:

The tracks are too long. There’s five of them and running times range from 7:17 to 16:53—a meandering 16:53 at that. They sound like something straight out of a Renaissance fair. She sounds like a mouse.

They’re predictable, and, oh, aren’t we so hard on Miss Joanna?

She sounds like nails on chalkboards.

Well give me nails on chalkboards then because Newsom’s really reined in her vocals from the screeches and squeals of her excellent 2004 release, The Milk-Eyed Mender. The voice that commandeered that record isn’t necessarily absent here, but it’s definitely not what Newsom wants us getting hung up on with Ys.

Same with the arrangements by American composer Van Dyke Parks, who collaborated with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys on Smile. The orchestra always seems shushed up, playing second fiddle to Newsom’s harp, and rarely gets a chance to stand on its own.

So what does shine?

The lyrical content really keeps things moving here. Actually, it’s pretty tough to move anywhere without the lyric book. With Ys, Newsom’s constructed five miniature plays, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and with them a world that is easy to get lost in (and click goes the skhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifip button on the iPod). Following along with Newsom, however, you experience the beauty, depth and heart of her stories, and get taken in by them.

And that’s a far cry from the gut-reaction to the shrillness of “Saaaaadiiiiieeeee” from The Milk-Eyed Mender, and ultimately why Ys is the more rewarding record.

Joanna Newsom is currently touring and will be at Headliners in Louisville on November 24.

+ Monkey & Bear from Ys