& The Ys Street Band Ep (Vinyl) [EP]

 

 

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You have to lower the stakes after an album like Ys, because you can't raise them. Joanna Newsom's follow-up is a lot less formally ambitious: A three-song quickie, with one new song and two old ones, recorded live in the studio with four members of her acoustic touring band. Of course, "less formally ambitious" on Newsom's scale is off the charts on virtually anyone else's. "I was coding a lot of my experience in terms of excess of water," she told Pitchfork last November about the lyrical process that produced Ys, and Ys Street Band-- especially its tremendous new song, "Colleen"-- seems to be conceptual overspill from the album.

"Colleen" is inarguably an excess-of-water song: If I'm reading the handwritten lyric sheet right, it's a sort of Drawing Restraint 9-in-reverse scenario about a woman who's forgotten she used to be a whale, being confronted with the knowledge of her past. (Vivid detail: She's now wearing a corset, which of course would be made of whalebone. A whale in her dream says "What's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen?/ Is that my very own baleen?/ No! Have you forgotten everything?") It may be a way of addressing the kind of Chinese Democracy-style creative block that comes from immersion in making an Important Work: "I tilled and planted, but could not produce/ Not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean; Lord!/ It seemed I overwatered everything."

Too much water again-- and Newsom even line-breaks like a print poet. It's true: She does lead with her lyrics. But she's also an extraordinary and unmistakable tune-maker. Her melodies are Proustian, winding things, so the details of their arrangements and performances signify a lot. Recast without the immense orchestrations of its Ys incarnation, "Cosmia" becomes more intimate, less a framed-and-mounted artifact. And touring seems to have sanded some of the snags off of Newsom's voice; she's singing better here than she has on record before.

The danger of using acoustic instruments is that people may mistake you for a "folk" musician, which Newsom really isn't-- although "Colleen", more than anything else she's written, owes a lot of its lyrical and musical cadences to traditional music of the British Isles. (Remember, "colleen" isn't just a name: Its Irish usage can just mean "girl" or "young woman.") The cadences of her songs and singing have a lineage of which she's well aware; this time, there are faint echoes of Kate Bush and (especially when drummer Neal Morgan harmonizes with her on an excellent remake of The Milk-Eyed Mender's "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie") Desire-era Bob Dylan, both of whom are similarly well-connected to their own aesthetic roots. But there's nobody else playing Newsom's game right now, and as good as it is that she can produce a varnished marvel like Ys, it's even more heartening to see her moving beyond it this quickly.

Joanna composes from a classical lineage that tells stories via timeworn allegory whilst mixing in personal emotional metaphor. This is the way stories and legends were always passed onto us. My twelve year old daughter thinks she's mad... and that is a compliment given the Gagaoid 'meteorite' showers now visited upon her and her kind. She will come to re-listen to Joanna with new ears and mind after I have passed on. I somehow put myself in a zone where I believe I'm listening to Keats, Frost, and Tennyson being sung by her. All the production crews on this CD are also drawn to storytelling and imagery powers through her harp and unique voice. She touches me down in the sixteenth century while I pound my way through exercise machines and tredmills. True genius.

An EP with only three tracks, only one of which being a new song. Doesn't sound particularly promising does it?

Well by way of an answer it should be pointed out that all the tracks are new recordings and the total runtime is just over 24 minutes.

The songs were recorded at the end of the U.S. tour (Autumn 2006 in California)after having to cancel three gigs due to a lost voice, the songs were recorded 'live' in the studio with her tour band and minimal tinkering.Her vocal troubles certainly aren't evident here, although her voice seems to get richer and less spikey with each new recording.

Anyone lucky enough to have caught her recent live shows(in the US and UK) will be familiar with the new song here ("Colleen") and the new version of "Clam,Crab,Cockle,Cowrie"(from "The Milk Eyed Mender"album) but british fans will not have heard "Cosmia" in this form as they had the benefit of orchestral backing not available on the american tour.

"Colleen" starts the EP off with a frenetic energy and is typically untypical of anything else out there, it's kind of folky, kind of sea shanty and breaks the verses with a strange flamenco/belly dancing jig that should have you on your feet and jumpin'.

It's followed by a new recording of "Clam,Crab,Cockle,Cowrie" which is fully justified as it is very different from the album version, an almost achingly tender rendition that shows a softer side to the artist, it also benefits from the addition of an accompanying voice, richer instrumentation, and the more controlled vocal delivery already evident on the "Ys" album. It is possibly my favourite on the EP.

The final track("Cosmia") is in some ways the most exciting prospect as it takes the original and expands it to double its previous lengh replacing the orchestration with a rich variety of sounds utilising the band to its full.The song feels slightly more gentle here than on the album but no less rich for it.

I would say that this is definitely one for the converts(newcomers should start with "Ys")but if you are already a fan then this is an essential purchase.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Freakfolkery
Joanna Newsom is one of the great indie musicians of our time -- just look at last year's "Ys," a sprawling masterpiece of freakfolk. Read more

Published on April 24 2007 by E. A Solinas

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