Just some random stuff this time. I wondered whether the weather is still better, for this time of year because of the soundtrack I’m playin’. I’ve been listening all week now to the new CD Ys [pronounced Lies] of Joanna Newsom, and it’s still growin’ on me. I think it’s pretty timeless stuff. Critics call this New Weird Freakfolk; it’s not something you’d play an awful lot but I know I’ll still be to listening to it 10 years from now.
I liked her music before but I like it even more so now. Her voice matured and gained more flexibility over the years but the bonus of this album is the collaboration with other great musicians like Van Dyke Parks, Jim O'Rourke and Steve Albini.
Van Dyke delivered some great symphonic arrangements which ad a kind of old school musical fairytale appeal to it. O’Rourke and Albini both trembled the knobs and delivered the right at your face production. The arrangements really soften things, because the lyrics are heavy stuff - medieval imagery ad old English vocabulary are not exactly my expertise [but with a little help from an online dictionary I can pretty well master it].
The melodies are still typically home-made and one of a kind. The songs are really long for a pop song – an average 10 minutes – but are like little symphonies with a great flow and still hummable as I discovered to my own surprise.
Cosmia – Joanne Newsom [Ys 2006]
when you ate I saw your eyelashes
saw them shake like wind on rushes
in the corn field when she called me
moths surround me - thought they'd drown me
and I miss your precious heart
dried rose petal, redbrown circles
framed your eyes and stained your knuckles
and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in
and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in
why've you gone away?
gone away again?
I'll sleep through the rest of my days
if you've gone away again
sleep through the rest of my days
why've you gone away, away
seven suns, seven suns
away, away, away, away
can you hear me? will you listen?
don't come near me, don't go missing
in the lissome light of evening:
help me, Cosmia; I'm grieving
and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in
and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in
beneath the porch light we've all been circling
beat our dust hearts, singe our flour wings
but in the corner, something is happening!
wild Cosmia, what have you seen?
water were your limbs, and the fire was her hair
and then the moonlight caught your eye, and you rose through the air
well, if you've seen true light, then this is my prayer:
will you call me when you get there?
and I miss your precious heart;
and miss, and miss, and miss,
& miss, & miss, & miss, & miss, & miss your heart
but release your precious heart
to its feast, for precious hearts
Video – Sprout and the Bean – Joanne Newsom [The Milk-Eyed Mender 2004]
What’s more?! As an antidote for all this delicate softness. The Albini link brings me to Fugazi. This band really saved Indie music for me in those dreadful grunge years when everybody listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I never saw the fun of it. While surfing on the net this afternoon and posting this message, I found some live material from Fugazi on some other weblogs, namely http://detectiefvanzwam.blogspot.com/ and Zen and the Art of Face Punching. As ever on Youtube, this punch in yer face is great stuff. I wish I was there, because I only saw the live once. Enjoy.
Fugazi - Shut the door
Some other image footage from another band, Broken Social Scene. I got acquainted with this band when I heard this song on the radio. At first I thought, what a really nice new song from Dinosaur Jr. but then I remembered that they split-up. I learned that they’re a Canadian collective of musicians and that this song, Cause=Time is from a second album called You Forgot It In People. It was out of print but about a year or two ago it was re-released. I bought it and it’s really great. An all time classic. The other older albums are rather obscure and noisy. This makes me think that I should check whether they’ve got a new one out.
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