Stuck In Our Head: "Peach, Plum, Pear [Live]" - Joanna Newsom

"I am blue / I am blue, and unwell"
Studio recording, 2006.

"I was blue / I was blue, and unwell"
Live, 2011.

Albums of the Year '10!

Originally this was printed in our INCREDIBLE ZINE (that we had many more orders for than we anticipated - thanks for that) but we thought for those of you who were too busy/forgetful/shy/lazy/stupid to order a copy, we'd let you browse our albums of the year anyway. We're nice like that. So here goes:

Swanlights - Antony & The Johnsons
If you thought it was impossible for Antony Hegarty's music to grow even more beautiful, you were wrong. Swanlights is so fragile, so delicate, so threaded through with a bittersweet despair, you find yourself unsure whether you should cry, smile or do both. The lyrics are especially and charmingly oblique, the album is like nothing else.

Flesh Tone - Kelis
A brave new direction from an artist previously well established in a rather rigid set of genre constraints, Flesh Tone reflects a desire for experimentation and new tastes… things we love. The music is certifiably incredible, with the very best producers in the field of dance moulding their sounds to fit Kelis‟ rather spectacular personality. The music is glorious, the imagery is exciting, the segues are wonderful. A brilliant album.

All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu - Rufus Wainwright
Wainwright may be one of the cleverest people in pop but occasionally his music is overcomplicated and his voice flat when set against his rich, ornate arrangements.
Not on this album, a pared down masterpiece borne from Rufus' grief at his mother's death. His piano playing is both modern and timeless, his songwriting: frenetic and heartbreaking.

Pink Friday - Nicki Minaj
We may still be a lil' biased due to this being the only thing we've listened to for a fortnight, but this was the biggest fresh breath of hip hop air we've taken in a very long time. Her raps are intelligent, funny, bossy and have something to actually say, while we must admit we're more than taken with her ridiculously trashy look. Her singing voice is pretty-bordering-on-quite-good, and her knack for sampling fucking good songs is more than endearing. The best vocal riff from “Don‟t You (Forget About Me)” (The Breakfast Club anyone?) is used to magical effect on “Blazin”.

Have One On Me – Joanna Newsom
How do you follow up arguably one of the greatest albums of all time? Triple it, apparently. This 3CD extravaganza is so expertly wrought it leaves you (literally) breathless. How does Newsom fold such spellbinding interlocking rhythms and melodies into eachother? How does she weave stories so meandering and heavy with meaning? An incredible achievement.

Head First - Goldfrapp
While (unusually for such musical innovators) appearing at the tail end of the brief but blissful resurgence of 80s synthesised dream pop at the end of the decade, Head First still manages to spin something new from used yarn. The soundscapes more than meet the expectations laid down by Goldfrapp's preceding reputation and body of work, with truly uplifting tunes being welcomed into their impressive canon. And the artwork is fucking gorgeous.

The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
Nostalgia for a simpler time is the theme for Arcade Fire's third album and it says a lot that it speaks so directly to someone only 20 years old. It says a lot about how fast our rapidly-developing world has changed. And it says a lot about the skill of Arcade Fire‟s songwriting – turning a semi-cliché subject from something potentially trite into something sumptuous and heartrending and bleak.

Here Lies Love - David Byrne & Fatboy Slim
We weren‟t especially knowledgeable about the work of David Byrne, Fatboy Slim or Imelda Marcos, but if you put them in a food processor (not literally lolz) and an incredibly captivating concept album featuring a plethora of fabulous all-female singers (just what we like) pops out, maybe they should work together more often. The insufferable Florence Welch becomes mildly likeable, while Martha Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, Róisín Murphy and Tori Amos form just some of the remarkable vocal talent. “Solano Avenue” featuring the previously-unknown-to-us Nicole Atkins is a highlight.

The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) - Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe careened into our lives with her stunning and effortlessly inventive EP, Metropolis (Suite I – The Chase Suite), particularly on the track “Many Moons” – a song so jampacked full of energy and a seemingly boundless set of ideas, it left us literally breathless the first time we heard it. Ohhh, we thought, what the hell was that?! It was like André 3000 had had a sex change and decided to cover Madonna's “American Life”, produced by Missy
Elliott and coached in vocal acrobatics by Kate Bush and Erykah Badu. Actually, we hate those sorts of descriptions, so totally ignore that and bear in mind that if you're not already familiar with Janelle Monáe (you should be), she's unlike anything else. Ok, one last comparison: imagine if Janet Jackson had 10 times the vocal range she does, was capable of orchestration, lyrical dexterity and obsessed with science fiction – then you might be able to picture just how incredible The ArchAndroid is…

That's the thing… Ms. Monáe is so inventive, her palette of references and influences so delightfully varied, and her voice so dextrous and skilled, that it's hard to find the words to do her work justice. This album is truly, something to savour (although not perfect, we hope future works might be shorter, with one or two filler tracks cut). The tracks blend into each other effortlessly, and especially since some of them are very long and contain many changes of pace, sometimes you don't know whether you've moved from one song to the next, or not. You enter an endless dream-world where symphony orchestras loom out at you, only to be replaced by punky guitar riffs (“Come Alive: The War of the Roses), hazy 70s prog-like ballads (“Mushrooms and Roses”) and futuristic funk.

Some believe that great music is music that does the un- expected: music that surprises. And nothing is more surprising than this album. One moment you're drifting away on a 50s “Tears on my Pillow”- style doowop ballad (the stunning “Oh, Maker”) and the next you're bobbing and writhing about to an almost pop-rock, uptempo (“Cold War”) . The album's crowning glory is its closing number, “BaBopByeYa”, the must sumptuous, stunning, sensuous, involving, dark, shudderingly good 8 minute track you'll hear all year .

There's supposedly a concept here, but as is often the case with superior concept albums, it's kind of besides the point – the music takes precedent here. Janelle Monáe's debut album is a work of such raw genius, it's hard to talk about without getting passionately speechless, it's the kind of thing you have to experience for yourself. Perhaps it'll date badly, perhaps it'll stale quickly, but one thing we know for sure: Monáe is an artist to watch and whose every move and experiment we will savour and salivate over. If you listen to only two albums from 2010 make it Robyn's Body Talk series, and this.

Body Talk - Robyn
Robyn has undoubtedly been the artist of the year, and unquestionably produced the single of the year (in the shape of “Dancing On My Own”). She's also released, alongside Janelle Monáe, the finest body of work in 2010, but her unconventional release strategy has put us in a quandary. You see, we have a chronic case of iTunes OCD, at Shiny & New towers, so Robyn's epic (in the traditional sense of the word) Body Talk series has caused us no end of grief - are they EPs? Is there an album? Is there a compilation? *head(s) explodes*

With the final, 3rd, instalment finally released, we thought that Body Talk could stand as one of the albums of the year. We wanted it to, so that we felt we had a big overarching cohesive body of work to tie 2010 together, but the officially released 15-track album didn't sound right – partly because almost every song is a heart-stopping, foot-stomping, pulse-quickening, euphoria-inducing, hip-shaking sobathon and 15 of those in a row is enough to send anyone over the edge (one needs light and shade lols)… but also because we had gotten used to each individual instalment, released as an 8 track mini- album, and their individual… erm… flavours. So this article is praising our preferred mode of listening to the Robyn songs released this year: the three separate EPs – Pt. 1, Pt. 2 and the digital-only 5-track Pt. 3:

Pt. 1 is the eclectic, masterpiece-riddled introduction to the series, veering wildly from disco (“Dancing on my Own”) to robopop (“Fembot”) to queeny reggae (“Dancehall Queen”) to dark electro (“None of Dem”), all deranged and knowing. Pt. 2 is
more cohesive, but with fewer standout highlights (although the incredible “Include Me Out” and “In My Eyes” are nothing if not memorable), much more sinuous and glitter- ing, like a gay James Bond's collective expeditions, at once dark, dangerous and intense (“Love Kills”) and then on the incredible “Indestructible (Acoustic)”, both melodramatic and romantic and yet somehow ice cold; Then the shorter and sweet(er), Pt. 3 is the poppiest, the most upbeat, jubilant , brighteyed, hopeful, not a mournful or self-pitying moment in sight – from the stompathon “Time Machine” to the heartbreaking pseudo-stalker anthem “Call Your Girlfriend”, via the über-romantic “Stars 4-ever”.

These 3 EPs may seem like they'd all slot together, but somehow, they work best (in our humble opinion) apart. Body Talk may not represent a complete or coherent album, in the traditional sense, but that doesn't matter because it's an incredible achievement. The sheer quality here is outstanding! Which other artist could expel 20 pop masterpieces in 12 months across 3 mini master- works? No one. We make the rules, so we can just as easily break them. This may not be your typical album – it may be 3 separately released ones – but that;s what makes it great. It's one of our albums of the year: a glittering abundance of tracks.

A bit of culture on Kimmel...

Here are artfully embedded videothings of Joanna Newsom performing on a US TV show called Jimmy Kimmel Live. We would tell you our opinion of said show, but we don't get it in England, so we have no idea if it's good or not. There was that 'Fucking Matt Damon' thing wasn't there? That was funny for about 4.3 seconds. Can any of our American readers tell us if this is a good show or not?

Anyway, we digress. Joanna Newsom: still beautiful, still unfairly talented. Her songs: still made of sugar spun awesome.

Stunner.

We know this is deeply lazy and we're actually completely morally opposed to this, but we were going to attempt a review of Joanna Newsom's album and then we read Kitty Empire's one on the Guardian website and we suddenly realised she'd said everything we wanted to say. So click above. Basically the gist of her article, and our convergent feelings are thus:

• If you thought Joanna couldn't top Ys you were wrong because this is like three Yses all in a row (it's a triple album, see).
  
• Except there's more variation, which is always a good thing.
• There's a progression in sound.
• The tunes and orchestration are still boss but best of all:
• Joanna has managed to develop a singing style that is about 100 times less divisive than her previous one whilst still remaining unmistakeably Newsom.
• This means that if you previously thought she had an un-listenable voice and impenetrable songwriting style, this may be the record for you because:
• Some of the songs are 3 or 4 minutes long.
• Some of the orchestration is sparser and less overwhelming.
• A lot of Joanna's singing is less squeaky.

It's basically a complex, sophisticated, multi layered, feverish masterpiece - so lush, so epic, so well-wrought, so intelligent, so moving it temporarily renders all other music obsolete.

We know words.

The last five posts on Shiny & New have featured little-to-no writing and we didn't want any intrepid discoverers of our petit blog (petite? is 'blog' masculine or feminine?) to think that all we do is just post pictures and write something deeply witty above and below them. We do a whole lot more. Oh yes.

So here we're going to write about a new Joanna Newsom song we've heard from her up-and-coming third studio album, Have One on Me. The song we've heard is called "Good Intentions Paving Company" and it is a pleasure to listen to AND to write about.

Compared to Newsom's previous work it is a veritable shock to the system. It starts with this chugging piano rhythm and builds in a way that is more 'pop' than anything she has ever done before. But don't worry, it's still 7 minutes long, so it's not like she's sold her values up the river to go work with RedOne. Anyway... it's sort of 'bluesy' and has these lovely harmonies. It doesn't do exactly what you'd expect it to do, either, so it's not a generic mess, it's a lovely surprise.

You'd sort of expect it to keep building until the marching band, timpani, side drum, tank, gongs, twirlers and cheerleaders had all come in - a 'kitchen sink' build. But it doesn't. It also feels like a totally natural and wonderful progression from her last, lush, ornate, orchestral, classical album, Ys. We have to be honest with you, we thought anything Joanna Newsom released post-Ys would be, by default, disappointing. But this feels exactly right. It feels natural. It feels good. And it's wonderful. We know you'll enjoy...

Thanks for watching/reading/listenin'.

CALM DOWN IT WASN'T THE FINAL ARTWORK...

Like, thank GOD. It wasn't the final artwork.

Uh oh...

This, above, is the cover for Joanna Newsom's new album, Have One On Me. If you were confused by the album title (which isn't exactly Newsomesque, in all honesty) then you'll be utterly baffled by the supposed album cover, above. It's dreadful. Bare. Blank. Lazy. It's completely devoid of whimsy, romance, expanse, texture. We are begging, praying, hoping and crossing every and all of our limbs in hope that it's just a mock-up FOR NOW. Surely it can't be the finished work? How could she do this to us?

This, however, is where the 'uh oh' ends. We have managed to wrap our ears around a track from the up-and-coming album, "'81" - it appears on CD 1 of the three disc opus (yes! triple album alert!) - and let us tell you, it is blindingly lovely. Just spun out of pure cut-glass, ravishing lovely. Gone are the ambitious and lush orchestral arrangements of her last album, Ys, and gone, too, are the extravagant and delightful song lengths (this track is only 3:52 compared to the 15 minute plus durations of some of those aforementioned Ys tracks). Just Newsom, her harp, and her incomparable skill.

We have no idea if the whole album's gonna be as sparse as this, nor do we know if there will be a theme, or set of themes, associated with each separate 'disc'. We don't even know if that atrocious joke of a coverart up there is the final deal. But we shall let you know in due time.

What we do know is the tracklist. So here it is in all its glory. Intrigue abounds...

Disc 1

1. "Easy"
2. "Have One On Me"
3. "'81"
4. "Good Intentions Paving Company"
5. "No Provenance"
6. "Baby Birch"

Disc 2

1. "On A Good Day"
2. "You And Me, Bess"
3. "In California"
4. "Jackrabbits"
5. "Go Long"
6. "Occident"

Disc 3

1. "Soft As Chalk"
2. "Esme"
3. "Autumn"
4. "Ribbon Bows"
5. "Kingfisher"
6. "Does Not Suffice"

Amazing.

Happy Birthday, Joanna Newsom!

Now hurry up with that new album, please.

Joanna Newsom Strikes Back

Joanna Newsom's new album is going to be called Have One On Me WE CAN UNEXCLUSIVELY REVEAL. Doesn't exactly sound like it'll be a retread of the magnificent and genuinely magical Ys, does it? Doesn't sound like a Joanna Newsom album title at all, if we're honest.

But we're sure it'll be 'spectacks' nevertheless. In the words of her label's website (i.e. here comes the cut and paste bit):

"Spunk is thrilled to announce the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album ‘Have One On Me’, due for release February 19.

This is Joanna’s third full length album. Her last record ‘Ys’ was a conceptual masterpiece of ethereal harp, lush vocals and expansive, complex orchestrations arranged by Van Dyke Parks, and was recently voted one of the Albums of the Decade by Pitchfork and Mojo Magazine.

‘Have On One Me’ is released in Australia via Spunk February 19, and released the rest of the world February 23 on Drag City."

Really fucking excited.

UPDATE:

We just found this comic strip on Newsom's er... other label's 'site: Drag City. It is, as the French would say, 'sympa', and also 'lols'.

Multi-talented.

Joanna Newsom is modelling Armani here. Yep. Armani. How odd is that? Odd, but strangely arousing. Drowned in Sound seem to have the scoop on what's going down RE: the campaign and her new (LONG-AWAITED) album due out in 2010. Quite what she's cooked up, we have no idea. But she's going to have to go a long way to top a 5-track epic fully-orchestrated masterpiece like Ys. A LONG way.

Is this the most terrifying music video of all time?

What MGMT have done, right, is they've crafted something truly horrible. This, the music video for their rather fabo song, "Kids", not only features a terrified toddler being harassed by some truly horrific monsters and zombies. But Joanna Newsom plays his mum. As Britney Spears. There's also a silver lamé segment, and some scary cartoons at the end.

Brilliant and horrible.