4. Ys - Joanna Newsom
http://youtu.be/UGoNCvoZuYA Imagine if Joni Mitchell and Genesis teamed up for an MTV Unplugged show. That, in theory, is what folk singer-songwriter/harpist Joanna Newsoms second album Ys sounds like, and yet it still sounds utterly idiosyncratic. The album only has five songs, the longest being a few seconds shy of 17 minutes while the shortest is just under 10 minutes. Throughout, Joanna slithers out her weird, Marc Bolan-esque celestial poetry with an elastic slur in her voice, plucking away at her harp alongside. Joined occasionally by an orchestra, they remain in the background while Joannas voice and harp bring the quirky lyrics and idiosyncratic mix of folk/classical/singer-songwriter music to life.
Fred McNamara
Contributor
Senior editor for the superhero/comic book hub A Place To Hang Your Cape. BA in Creative Writing and Film Studies from Hull Uni. Currently getting lost in the big wide world of freelance writing. And some other stuff.
See more from
Fred