Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 awesome July 15, 2010
miguelito
awesome, enough said.
actually thats really lazy, but this album is awesome otherwise i wouldn't have bothered writing anything, oh...and amazon prompted me to do a review. THEY MADE ME DO IT!!!! awesome album. i love JN. sounds slightly different on this album, more controlled perhaps, not that i really know what i'm talking about.
she has such a beautiful and unique voice that may be slightly odd for first time listeners, but on this album she seems more accessible. i am in such awe of this beautiful woman and i love her other work, such a talented little beaver.
see this is why i never write reviews, before i know it i'll have written a 3000 word essay that no one will ever read. so this ends, now. goodbye. support patrick watson, one of the greatest artist performing today.
oh and one last the thing, it arrived in perfect condition. i'm really enjoying buying actual c.d's again.
bye.
hope this was helpful.
have a great day.
enjoy the album.
if you bought it.
bye.
again.
 A Disparate Direction From Her Beginnings June 29, 2010
M. Ward (Hoddesdon, UK)
I first fell in love with Joanna Newsom when I heard the late John Peel playing "Inflammatory Writ" from her first official album "The Milk-Eyed Mender". What attracted me most to Newsom's music was her raw, strange and sometimes grating voice. She would squeel and scream through those early songs which seemed to breathe more life into the songs. The distorted voice encompassed her genius lyrics perfectly.
So I was a little disappointed when first listening to this album that the wonderful screeches and wails were sadly nowhere to be heard (After research I discovered that this was due to Joanna suffering from vocal cord nodules), This is a much more mellow and melancholic collection. Due to this, her songs still retain their unique 'folk-tale' texture of the previous albums, however, without her vocal quirks they do not seem to 'punch' the senses as much as "The Milk-Eyed Mender".
This is not to say that "Have one on me" does not have anything to offer - Her lyrical genius is still very much alive and thriving! Many song-writers will tell you how difficult it is to create lyrics that develop imagery and story as well as keep your listener engaged. Newsom however makes this look easy, she even goes that one step further by instilling a sense of personality and warmth to the words. The songs are for laying in the grass on a summer's eve - thoughts drifting to love or lamenting love lost.
To conclude, this is Newsom maturing. The wild, unpredictable voice has been tamed into a smooth and engaging, almost angelic sound, but a tamed beast is never as spectacular. The smooth sounds and colourful lyrics are perfect to melt away to and such a welcome change to the majority of music played today. There is no doubting that this album is both beautiful and accomplished. But I still can't help but remember why I first fell in love with her voice - the imperfections gave more than any other singer I have heard. I hope that the vocal nodules truly were the cause of this softening and it isn't down to some other 'pressure' to adapt.
simply brilliant June 1, 2010
R. Weight (Brighton, United Kingdom)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have been listening to Joanna Newsom for several years now, and was so taken with The Milk Eyed Mender that I was dubious about YS. YS turned out to be beautiful, and complementary to The Milk Eyed Mender, but yet again when I found out Newsom was releasing a further album I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the harmonious arrangements, fables and stories, and hypnotic melodies of her previous works.
I needn't have worried. It took me a week to finally pluck up the courage to playing this after buying it, and I was not disappointed. It grows and grows on you the more you listen to it, and you can hear Newsom's development (new instruments and bluesy sounds) but there are echos back to the other albums.
I can't describe each song - just if you buy one album this year - buy this one. You won't regret it.
the wonder of newsom May 21, 2010
Kristen
Stunning- far exceeds expectations. This will be my soundtrack to the summer of 2010. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! buy it now
She's Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady April 1, 2010
Man Without a Soul (London)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
How much of a good thing can you take? Triple albums are riskier than grenade tennis and yet somehow I never worried when I heard Joanna was set to release one. It made complete sense - how else to better the already wildly ambitious 'Ys' if not by producing an almost impenetrably dense two hour master class in experimentation.
For a start look no further than Joanna's new vocal approach - she still employs her trademark mannered folk vocals on some of the material but also shows she can work to more conventional templates (to great effect) in places, or can branch out in completely unexpected directions (check out the quavering style on `Good Intentions...' or the beautifully understated performance on `Does Not Suffice').
The song writing has also been totally revamped - and to these ears to no detriment. Arguments that this is a disappointment to fans of `Ys' are confusing considering there is enough material in a similar style here to have made a straightforward follow up: try a playlist of `81', `No Provenance', `Go Long', `Jackrabbits', `Esme' and `Kingfisher'.
The real treat is that this is just the start as we also have a couple of near-pop detours (the jaunty `Good Intentions...', the spot-on opener `Easy'), unsettling minimalism (`Autumn'), naked emotional outpouring (`Does Not Suffice'), pastoral loveliness (second disc palette cleansers `On a Good Day' and `You & Me, Bess) and epic arrangements that skirt close to prog in terms of complexity (the outstanding `Baby Birch' and `In California').
If you feel like your head is starting to cave in trying to make sense of this album as a whole just let it go and try and explore one disc at a time, preferably in order as I believe there is method to the track sequencing madness - disc one is the easiest entry point, disc two the most fulfilling self-contained entity and disc three packs the biggest emotional punch.
The voice is never less than engaging, the lyrics frequently touched by true genius, the arrangements and instrumentation varied and imbued with impressive depth - give this one the time it deserves.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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