Joanna Newsom - Baby Birch
So I went to see J-Nu last night, at one of my favourite Sydney venues, the City Recital Hall. I can’t remember the last time I was so “there” at a concert, it was a marvellous set, and most importantly the band were that magic level where they are simultaneously loose and tight, and they were all having fun performing. I won’t give a full review, because I don’t think it’s necessary - either you’re already sold on Joanna, or you won’t be. Suffice to say that this song closed the night and it was a stunning way to finish.
Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear (Live)
I was listening to this on the bus home this evening. My word, it is divine. I’ll never forget the first (and second, and third) times I heard the studio version of this song, and it’s remained consistently my favourite track of hers. But when she performed it live on her tour last year, it had evolved so much from the sparky, percussive almost pop number to something much more mature and considered. This isn’t a considered statement, but I still feel that it would hold true if I had sat thinking and cataloguing - this version would easily be in my list of top ten songs I’ve ever heard performed live.
It’s not an official recording, but an audience recording, so the volume may be a little low. Stay around for the divine instrumental outro.
Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company
It did take me a while to work out which track to post. I had already posted “Easy” some time ago, so that was out. My favourites on the album - “In California” and “Does Not Suffice” - work so well as a pair in the context of the long, sprawling stories she tells that divorcing them would be doing them a disservice. “Soft As Chalk” was an option, but didn’t feel quite right. The title track worth considering, but an 11 minute bio piece felt a bit too unwieldy for this place. I settled on this one I think mostly because the mind behind Crumbler, who has for a long time expressed his dislike of J-Nu, tweeted one day that he liked the song. If someone with such distaste for the woman’s work can like the song, and he has such good taste otherwise, then really, it must be a damn fine piece.
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
You know what? Everyone’s already made up their mind on this record so I’m not going to bother spruiking it or going into a huge essay about it. I do think it’s too long, but I do think it’s a great step forward from Ys in terms of making her epic storytelling more immediately accessible for the most part. It’s length doesn’t make me feel bad about skipping over the tracks that interest me less, because it whittles it down to one solid LP for me.
Joanna Newsom - Easy
I had this song running around in my head all day. It was nice to come home and put the record on while I got dinner ready. “Have One On Me” is an incredibly sprawling album and a little too long for my tastes. While it contains neither of my two favourite tracks from the set (which are “In California” and its sequel “Does Not Suffice”), LP1 alone is possibly the best Joanna Newsom record there is. I listen to it often.
Liveblogging J-Nu: “Baby Birch”
Starts again just voice and harp. It feels brighter than the previous track, but am still feeling a little concerned. Yeah very slow build. Feels more engaging than the previous song though, but still not actually wowing me to the point where I’m actively listening. It’s staying with me though, so I guess that’s a start. Very sparing use of what sounds like a banjo in the background is helping add colour. And it’s building now with percussive use of the harp, and that was a short build, and back to the opening style. This song needs to do something. That’s also where “No Provenance” fell down - there was no real progression into or from anything; it didn’t go anywhere. Building again now, this time with the electric guitar, ah and now percussion to help drive it. Harp and vocal still the same. Worried they’ll overwhelm her now. Here we go - layered, faster vocals, working well as a climax, yes I like this. The opening did take too long to get here - but I’m not listening much to the lyrics I will confess, so it’s possible that there is a story being woven that I’ll get to on a later listen. Nice reflective finish, great Asian touches that are making me want to listen to the song again so that I can put the climaxes and ending into a better informed context. Again I’m wishing she did more instrumental sections here, they provide such a great breathing space.
Liveblogging J-Nu: “No Provenance”
Back to harp and vocal, quite slow and again I’m feeling we’re back to the story spinning style. I must admit it needs a very good arrangement, and a dynamic one at that, to often get me to engage with this kind of songwriting. I like longform songs, and I like storytelling songs, but I also like really hooky songs. The hooks don’t need to be in your face, but J-Nu’s style on this song doesn’t lend itself to hooky writing at all. This song is very nice but it’s not doing anything at all to engage me. It’s not a bad song, it sounds very nice, a delicate arrangement, but it’s passing me by. Yeah, that didn’t grab me at all.
Liveblogging J-Nu: “Good Intentions Paving Company”
On to piano now. This one feels quite up already. Her voice is high and in harmony with itself in places. The piano is simple which works well because it allows the song to develop differently in relation to the accompaniment as its quite percussive playing rather than the rich melody you can get from the harp (as we just heard on “‘81”). The trouble with the layered vocals is that I can’t really make out well what she’s singing because it is, I’m pretty sure now, a change in how she sings that makes her voice clear and warm or sharper and more childish as it is here. Or maybe it’s the song style that forces her to sing differently, but the point still stands. This is the kind of song that I think Molly would describe as “all chorus”…he says just as it gets to a bit of a bridge where it slows down. I think what I mean is that prior to right now it didn’t feel like it was changing and flowing like some of her others do, so much as just circling around the same motif. That’s not a criticism - it’s well executed. Slow bridge is nicely arranged, building from just piano adding in some delicate brass which is pretty neat. Although it’s too long and has lost all dynamic thrust built up at the start of the song. And now we’re back to the dynamic section. Very nice brass on this song, and an organ too I believe. Instrumental section. She should do this more often - she knows how to write a song, and she works with very good arrangers. Ah, that was just a musical extended fade out - no more lyrics.
