JOANNA NEWSOM – HAVE
ONE ON ME (DRAG CITY)
It took me years to be
kind about Joanna Newsom. There was
always something very conceited in her listenership, which led to what I regard
as Morrissey
fan syndrome and the emotion of disliking an artist because of their
following and fanbase instead of their actual output and content. I know, my bad.
On that note, Have One
On Me is not the most crisp of releases.
I genuinely believe now that the novelty element of her appeal has gone
her original audience feels a bit lost.
She is just no longer indie. So
how does she respond to this? She
releases a triple album. There’s no
lack of ambition in this lady.
I guess maturity is
the key for Newsom now. I have always
argued that her voice be best suited to a Disney soundtrack rather than a
sweaty gig and from the off here I can’t help but feel vindicated and proved
right.
There is no question
that her sound remains unique and thus there is a lot to grip onto, it’s just
about placing. And thus it only works
at a certain time. As I have always
said about music: I want the music to put me in the right mood, I don’t want to
have to be in the right mood to be into the music.
I will now negotiate
the record in one go.
She sets here stall
out early with a new found string section on “Easy”. I can’t help but envisage some combination of Kate Bush and Belle
from Beauty And The Beast. Now I am
sure this appeals to many people on many levels but a cynical hating the world
punker is not going to find his edges softened by such an orchestral and
overblown set of proceedings.
Then arrives the title
track clocking in at just over eleven minutes.
There is to be no patience spared with this record. This is the person going out with Lonely
Island? Quite the contrast.
By this stage my room
has experienced a weird kind of aura. I
fear that at some point a person (a neighbour or loved one) my burst in to find
me sat here listening to these songs semi knackered in my tatty white bathrobe
that smells. See, even I cannot taint the
supposed beauty of proceedings.
Have One On Me is a
term that I would more expect from Chan Marshall. It’s a boozy title that suggests a willingness to give rather
than take. And yet it’s a fucking
triple album!
Ultimately ambition
outweighs execution as tedium arrives before the end of the first disc. By now listening to this record has become a
test of endurance I am not quite sure I can withstand. Keep saying to yourself: “its just a record,
its just a record”.
Eventually things
meander onto the second disc where still there appears no hooks and no
choruses. Just what am I looking for in
this? Somehow she manages to make a
track that lasts one minute and forty eight seconds feel like five.
Still I continue my
search for a moment when Newsom strips back the arrangements (such as on “In
California”) they begin work but overall you just wish she were being me
economic with things.
Finally we there is a
hook on “Jackrabbits” by which stage Newsom has taken on something of a Joni
Mitchell approach to proceedings.
By disc three I have
long since had my fill. On “Soft As
Chalk” it sounds as if she started tap dancing. Is that really appropriate behaviour?
At the eleventh hour
“Kingfisher” arrives as the staring track of the release but it’s just far too
late to save the day. Life is just too
short to lose yourself in such a vast and indulgent project. What are people seeing and hearing in this?
You have to be really
happy to enjoy this record. I am not.
Thesaurus moment:
obese.
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