Sawdust and Diamonds - Joanna Newsom
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September was kind of a tentative month, all the settling in and unpacking and new starts. But October is a month to sink your teeth into, to develop obsessions, I guess. It started with stumbling on a book by Chris Kraus at the bookstore at the art museum. I fell in love, hard, with the book and Chris Kraus and ordered her other books and there is something about the way she writes about art and love and sex and failure and sadness that is just so amazing to me. And then I spent an afternoon curled up on Caroline's couch watching the first season of "Lost" and wondered why the hell I hadn't started watching this show earlier. And then there was "Ys", Joanna Newsom's new album.
I was so apprehensive about this album at first. I am not one for long songs, and with the entire album comprised of 5 songs ranging between 7 to 16 minutes, I wasn't sure if I had the stamina to make it through. I listened to it a bit walking to work, but it didn't quite click. So I sort of wrote it off. But, last Thursday she played in Montreal as part of Pop Montreal, and sitting back in the pews of the Ukranian Federation it finally clicked. It was just her, her hair pulled back in a neat bun, and that huge harp on the stage. She alternated between playing new songs and old songs. Watching her play the new songs, they made sense to me. They're like novellas. They fit together; I can't imagine parts cut out.
"Sawdust and Diamonds" is my favourite. When she says, It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood, streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed or I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight, No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright, it just sounds really satisfying. I know lots of people can't see past her voice (Andrew come this close to throwing the CD out the car window this weekend), but, although I'm not a long song kind of person, I am a lyrics person, and there is such good, honest poetry in her words that I can't help but want to listen and get a little obsessed.
September was kind of a tentative month, all the settling in and unpacking and new starts. But October is a month to sink your teeth into, to develop obsessions, I guess. It started with stumbling on a book by Chris Kraus at the bookstore at the art museum. I fell in love, hard, with the book and Chris Kraus and ordered her other books and there is something about the way she writes about art and love and sex and failure and sadness that is just so amazing to me. And then I spent an afternoon curled up on Caroline's couch watching the first season of "Lost" and wondered why the hell I hadn't started watching this show earlier. And then there was "Ys", Joanna Newsom's new album.
I was so apprehensive about this album at first. I am not one for long songs, and with the entire album comprised of 5 songs ranging between 7 to 16 minutes, I wasn't sure if I had the stamina to make it through. I listened to it a bit walking to work, but it didn't quite click. So I sort of wrote it off. But, last Thursday she played in Montreal as part of Pop Montreal, and sitting back in the pews of the Ukranian Federation it finally clicked. It was just her, her hair pulled back in a neat bun, and that huge harp on the stage. She alternated between playing new songs and old songs. Watching her play the new songs, they made sense to me. They're like novellas. They fit together; I can't imagine parts cut out.
"Sawdust and Diamonds" is my favourite. When she says, It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood, streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed or I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight, No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright, it just sounds really satisfying. I know lots of people can't see past her voice (Andrew come this close to throwing the CD out the car window this weekend), but, although I'm not a long song kind of person, I am a lyrics person, and there is such good, honest poetry in her words that I can't help but want to listen and get a little obsessed.
posted by terki at 7:56 PM
1 Comments:
Chris Kraus will make you jump, jump.
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