I Could Not Undo This Desire

For my money, Joanna Newsom's Ys was the crowning musical achievement of 2006. Nothing else came close to gracing the heights it reached in terms of musicality, lyricism, or unabashed pathos. Its a career defining work, that I think even she'll find difficult to match again. May she never try.

I do hope for more music from her, but nothing that might detract from the power of the concept she's crafted here. A classically trained harpist, she's thrown the doors wide open on her song craft and poetic content. Her first record, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was an announcement of a new voice in the indie scene that valued both compositional structure and mythic prose. Her childish pitch blended with well-worn themes of being and understanding to imply both innocence and aged resignation. On Ys she pushes this idea to the wall with the help of musical heavies Steve Albini (Producer), Van Dyke Parks (Arranger), and Jim O'Rourke (Mixer). These are bold statements comprised of mini song movements and epic Homeric poetry, the shortest of which clocks in at just over 9 minutes long. There's no irony within these bars and if you can't give yourself over completely to the sentiment then you might find indulgence where I see passion.

The clip below shows Joanna playing my favorite track from the album "Sawdust & Diamonds". Though I can't claim to have extracted meaning from every line, I find the lyrics supremely moving. Its a treatise on birth, love, death and above all desire. Music moves me to tears pretty often, but even I laughed at myself as I sat at work wiping my eyes the first time I saw this. Luckily I came prepared with a tissue when I posted the link.

Joanna Newsom- "Sawdust and Diamonds"