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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joanna's romantic phase, February 23, 2010
This review is from: Have One on Me (Audio CD)
I could quite legitimately be described as a Newsom fanboy. I have loved everything she has done from the helium voiced early Ep's to the intricate fables of Ys. I have seen her live 10 times, and would quite like to marry her. So I am biased, I admit it. At the same time, I think I have a sufficiently independent mind to judge each album on its own merits, and am able to hold my swoon long enough to engage my brain (this is not true at her concerts - she could sing me Uzbeki nursery rhymes backwards and I would be spellbound).
My initial reaction to 'Have One On Me' ( as with most of her output) was slightly puzzled and cautiously hopeful. I know from experience that the structure, punctuation and resonances of her work take time to settle and form, so I have let the music slosh through me and wash over me, holding back any critical judgement. And all of a sudden, as I hoped it would, the shape took form. While I have been familiar with some of these songs for a while now, it was a new new one, Go Long that seeded the crystal. The novelty of this album is a typically much longer melodic line, accompanied by a softer voice (brought about by a throat infection last year). The spacier, ringing arrangement of Go Long illustrates this change - gone are sharp points and counterpoints of The Book of Right On et al, or even the rush and tumble of Emily - instead she holds her voice, fluctuating or slowly descending around a slow, deliberate harp.
These songs are given much more musical space than the more wordy Ys, and this, combined with more varied arrangements and drawn out phrases, creates an initial impression of a hazy, unfocussed album. Once you catch the idea though, and let the slow ebb and flow of her newly sanded down voice carry you, you get it. Be it singing of abortion on Baby Birch, or of her own conception on '81, this new 'romantic' sound chimes with a much more straightforwardly emotional approach to her subjects - love, in form and in content, fills these songs. There are a couple which have not made their mark with me yet, but the album as a whole, listened to seriously and in silence, is a great and humbling listen, and I did almost cry many times - the 'kindness prevails' close to Esme had me shivering uncontrollably, and the closing Does Not Suffice is desperately sad and dare I say it, moving.
I have not had the time or wit to trace the links between these songs, but it is clear that some phrases, both musical and lyrical, reappear in different guises throughout the album - their is half jaunty, half sad blues line that haunts both Baby Birch and Does Not Suffice. I am certain that, as with her previous works, listening and relistening will repay and repay. I am looking forward to the work.
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28 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, not great, not altogether an expected progression, not a fulfillment of promise, March 1, 2010
This review is from: Have One on Me (Audio CD)
I am happy for a new album, been waiting for it anxiously for what seems decades, and have no problem the album is over 2 hours. Should any Newsom fan really have an issue after sauntering along with the fantastic "Emily" or "Only Skin?" However... this is far from her Magnum opus.
No doubt I will get slammed for what is an honest opinion, and my dissention should not take away from those who are in love with this CD. I'm simply calling this what I feel it is, more mundane than her previous work. Not to say that there aren't some real jewels on this as there certainly are! While I'm happy to own it, As a whole I simply don't think this is of the same wit, whimsy and caliber as her previous work.
I agree with the more middle-road reviewers here. Every Picasso painted wasn't great but listening to the flag-waving fanboys you'd think they were. I also gave the new record a few weeks listen (you can pre-listen on the web at NPR and the usual off-kilter reviewing urls), and while there are moments of absolute Joanna genius on this, "81'" and "Jackrabbits" being amazing standouts, there are also a few songs just too common, or maybe just too out of character. I'm already fast forwarding songs to avoid the discordant songs. Someone mixed a few of these to make them more easy listening and it's grating. Plus, where the heck did "Good Intentions Paving Co." come from? How did this Jazz-infusion come out of the same person who wrote "Yarn and Glue," and "Peach, Plum, Pear?" I hate to say it, but the song is just dreadful. I think I'll start mourning now if Newsom has decided to steer towards Jazz, and the person who made the decision to mix in the corny horns in some of these songs needs to be slapped.
Also, anyone else notice the vocal style change? No one can begrudge the natural evolution an adult goes through. Just look at Joni Mitchell at 18 vs now in her 60s... vastly different. Still, I miss the nasal fey timbre that first unsettled me and then drew me in. Previous albums proved her voice beautiful in its flawed nature... now you only get shades of it, and mixed with delivery it's quite obviously intentional. I dislike the new polished Joanna. What's odd to me are the reviews who called Joanna unlistenable before this album and now rave about her vocal development on this album. While not on every song, I think many of these have lost her vocal uniqueness and to me it's not a good thing.
Not to be all negative. The CD **really is worth investing in** and the good absolutely outweighs the bad. I am happy for a new album, was happy to preorder it, will enjoy a number of these tracks but will be skipping a handful which has never happened on her records before.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Adventures of Jackrabbit & Kingfisher, May 13, 2010
This review is from: Have One on Me (Audio CD)
If "Ys" from 2006 has taught us anything, its that eloquence & harmony can go together most remarkably, a fact that Joanna Newsom has attempted to replicate on this triple-disc project. As a standalone body of work it is peerless, as a companion piece to "Ys" it is transcendent, and as a cohesive statement about the artists' work, it is exemplary. However, despite the accolades that one might afford it, the project is indeed `difficult' and a labor to sit through, in portions. This is true even if one has been a Newsom follower for a while. It is also impossible to imagine taking all of this in during one sitting, as it is rather long-winded and deserves a dedicated amount of investment.
"Have One on Me" attempts to chronicle something, though of course the easiest word to ascribe to this is `relationship'. However, as "Ys" has shown us, the lyrical imagery birthed by her lyrics seem far removed from dry and mundane things such as humans and their romantic entanglements. That said, it is difficult to find the baroque, and indeed, medieval elements that made "Ys" so stunning, on this record. At best, this is a very different work, thematically and sonically, with various standouts at every juncture. Ironically, this listener found the much praised tracks ("Good Intentions Paving Company", "Does Not Suffice") to be amongst the weaker of the lot. It appears that Joanna really takes flight with the free-form tracks, and while she sounds pleasant enough on more conventional songs, it is her sprawling mess on the title track, and "Kingfisher" that automatically stand out.
The title track appears inspired by Lola Montez, a real life figure who at one point held sway amongst royal circles in Bavaria, and eventually threatened to bring down the Kingdom (her biography paints her all sorts of colors, but `not interesting' isn't one of them). She was acclaimed for her famous `spider dance' that reportedly ensnared the King of Bavaria who eventually alienated his entire parliament due to his inexplicable obsession with her. In reality, Lola Montez's story is even more fascinating as she became a notorious world traveler and engaged in all sorts of dubious professions before finally taking solace in Christianity. The song traces her journey upward (or whichever direction) and focuses on the prime of her life, which is when she was the talk of subcontinental Europe. As usual, Newsoms' verbose lyrics make this a trip worth taking.
Its also interesting to see that Newsoms' turn of phrase and verbal stylings have undergone a seachange since her last outing. Remember the almost Tolkien-like lyrics of "Emily", and most pointedly on "Only Skin" from "Ys". Gone are the Arthurian verbology of those times, and in its place is a more accessible, or should I say `suburban' sensibility to the songwriting herein. Songs like `Easy' are laughably simple, lyrically, that you wonder if Joanna hasn't traded in her quill for an urban typewriter. Regard this quaint lyric from "Go Long" and that should explain to you the general tone of the songwriting of this recording:
"Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze
Sickly dressage, a princess of Kentucky
In the middle of the woods which were the probable cause
We danced in the lodge like two panting monkeys"
The strangeness of some of the lyrics are matched only by the curious musical arrangements. While "Ys" had an impressive string section with sweeping harmonies that appeared out of nowhere, this recording is far more subdued and a lot calmer, as it trades in those strings for more plaintive piano and harp arrangements. This is both a good and a bad thing as there is a certain `sameness' that permeates the entire album. While this worked to an extent on "Ys", the fact that it was a 5-track album perhaps masked the lingering suspicion that Newsom didn't have many tricks under her sleeve. But if you can get past the occasional `in a rut' passages (there are a couple of times where you would definitely feel `stuck' while listening to this, especially if you are attempting to listen to the 2+ hours at one stretch), you can appreciate the nuances that Newsom brings to the table as a composer. Indeed, there is nary a note out of place, nor a lyric that doesn't match itself to the melody, and for this she deserves high praise.
However, for many reasons, my personal favorite remains `Kingfisher' which appears at the end of this album. It's a big song, not as big as some of the others here but still very, very long and does not conform to any rhythmic structure. Its all over the place but eventually begins to rein it together towards the end as it ties together the various musical elements that came before it. The cryptic lyrics are double entendre, as they veer from straight-forward to masked, and the song can be construed in three very different fashions. Consider these words:
"We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshipping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth
Left us bound, and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking"
But as the song proceeds, such technicalities are left to the wind, as she becomes more direct, more personal, leading up to some of the best songwriting shes ever come up with:
"And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath"
Joanna Newsom may be clubbed along with Devendra Banhart in the `freak folk' movement (a tag that I totally disagree with, by the way), but her ability to write is at least twenty times better than Banharts. Sonically she is moving closer and closer to indefinable territory. There are patches on this record where the newly ascribed Joni Mitchell comparisons seem valid, and there are other places where the Kate Bush comparisons seem resoundingly fair (the album does contain strains of `Hounds of Love', in all fairness). But with her mellowed-down voice, the more direct songwriting, the absolute disregard for musical convention, and her core work with her self-taught instrument - the harp, she has transcended genre and evolved into a completely new musical genre of her own. This is most evident throughout this album, and while "Ys" had hinted at it, "Have One On Me" confirms it.
As there is no living record that could possibly compare to this, save for Newsoms' own "Ys", perhaps you would do well to check out that record first before coming to this. For long-time Newsom aficionados this should be a breeze to get used to (but honestly, I see this album revealing itself over years, not months or days). However, if you could find beauty within "Ariel" by Kate Bush, "The Isle of Dreaming" by Kate Price (whose musical instrumentations can be readily compared to this record), "Parallelograms" by Linda Perhacs, and "Emily" by Emily Dilinger (long out of print, sadly), then this album will definitely work for you. Obviously Newsom makes music that will be discussed, heard, and dissected over generations of music lovers, so this ones for keeps. If any album by a male artist could come close to this, it would have to be "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" by Devendra Banhart.
Five Stars. An indispensable addition to your independent music collection. File next to Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, Jana Hunter, & Meg Baird.
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,was produced by Joanna Newsom 
