Sorry for the lack of updates the past few weeks, as I felt I needed a little break from the blog.  Considering it’s only March (seriously, it’s already March!), it may seem odd that I would already need some time away, but hey, it happens!

With that being said, the first thing to scratch off the list upon updating is catching up with the album releases from the past weeks, including this week as well. And as you notice, there’s a ridiculous amount of releases that made their way down the pipe — almost too many to mention. So in an attempt to get this out as quickly as possible, I’ll let you guys recommend what’s worthy of dropping down some cash for.

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Tags: A Weather, April Smith and the Great Picture Show, Arpline, Athlete, Balmorhea, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Charlie Alex March, Clogs, Efterklang, Eluvium, Emma Pollock, Field Music, Golden Triangle, Holly Miranda, Japanther, Joanna Newsom, Josiah Wolf, Lightspeed Champion, Local Natives, Moon Duo, Portugal. The Man, Rocky Votolato, Rogue Wave, Sambassadeur, Shearwater, Shout Out Louds, Son Lux, The Go Find, The Ruby Suns, The Weekly Graboid, These New Puritans, Twin Tigers

Since the announcement of Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom’s follow-up to 2006’s flawless album Ys, Drag City has made available a few streams via their website.  The first of which, “‘81″ resulted in the site being completely overloaded, with the second track titled “Good Intentions Paving Company” was made available earlier today.

While I miss the quality string section that was prominent on Ys, the jazz leanings of this newest stream along with the general sparseness and stripped down sound of “‘81″ puts the focus squarely on Newsom’s vocals, her ability of which seems to have vastly improved by leaps and bounds. It feels more mature and focused — makes me kind of curious how someone listening to her now for the first time would think compared to her earlier work.

I’m sure we’ll hear more as the February 23rd release date quickly approaches, but considering it’s going to be a a triple album (3x-CD/LP), this already appears to be epic. Though, I do worry about how much filler this could contain, unless it’s just jam-packed with 7-minute tracks of awesome.  Will it be able to stand proudly against another triple album like 69 Love Songs?  We’ll find out soon enough!

Streams:
Joanna Newsom :: “‘81″ [alt. link]
Joanna Newsom :: “Good Intentions Paving Company” [alt. link]

Tags: Drag City, Joanna Newsom

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”

Tags: Joanna Newsom