Joanna Newsom | Queen Elizabeth Hall 2005

I’m sure everyone has already read in detail about the now infamous Pitchfork secret directory leak. I won’t get into details about it but if you want more info you can read here and here. One of the albums that happened to be leaked is the highly anticipated album Ys from the ethereal-like beauty Joanna Newsom. Leaked a full 3 months ahead of the scheduled release date of November on Drag City. If there’s one thing we don’t do here is post leaks, so don’t expect any songs off that album from us.

I’ll admit though that I have listened to Ys, and one word I can use to describe it is FLAWLESS. The string arrangements from legendary Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks are absolutely amazing and pretty much killed me upon listening. I mean it just oozes quality and bring the songs to a level of grand sophistication. The album will also feature contributions from Jim O’Rourke, Steve Albini and Smog’s Bill Callahan. The album only contains five tracks but the shortest song on the album is at around 7 minutes with the longest being upwards of almost 17 minutes, simply massive. You can definitely count me in on picking this one up in November.

For those unfamiliar with the elf-like woodland creature Joanna Newsom, a good place to start is her debut album The Milk-Eyed Mender. It’s a wonderful album of folk-pop that showcases Newsom’s skill as an accomplished harpist and pianist. The make or break aspect for most people upon listening is her odd voice, which would definitely coin the term “an aquired taste.” But, if you can get past that you’ll notice just how delicately charming her voice is and how it’s so simple, yet full of depth and emotion that adds an almost storytelling-like approach to the music.

Anyways, what I do have for everyone to listen to is a live show from 2005 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Really great stuff, may not be the greatest quality but it does contain some of the new tracks off the upcoming album in stripped down form.

Joanna Newsom | Queen Elizabeth Hall 2005

“Yarn and Glue”
“Bridges and Balloons”
“Sawdust and Diamonds”
“The Book of Right-On”
“What We Have Known”
“Only Skin”
“Peach, Plum, Pear”
“This Side of the Blue”
“Three Little Babes (trad)”
“Inflammatory Writ”
“Sadie”
“Swansea”
“Cosmia”
“Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie”
“Sprout and the Bean”

The Milk-Eyed Mender
Joanna Newsom | “Bridges and Balloons”
Joanna Newsom | “Sprout and the Bean”

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 5:19 pm and is filed under The Yellow Stereo. 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.