2015 JOANNA NEWSON SONG TOURNAMENT V FULL TABLE OF FINAL POSITIONS1 Only Skin
2 Emily
3 In California
4 Sapokanikan
5 Have One On Me
6 Cosmia
7 Go Long
8 Baby Birch
9 Monkey & Bear
10 Kingfisher
11 Sawdust & Diamonds
12 Anecdotes
13 Divers
14 Sadie
15 Good Intentions Paving Company
16 Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne
17 Peach, Plum, Pear
18 You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
19 Leaving The City
20 A Pin-Light Bent
21 On A Good Day
22 ’81
23 Time, As a Symptom
24 Easy
25 Soft As Chalk
26 Autumn
27 Goose Eggs
28 Colleen
29 Ribbon Bows
30 Swansea
31 En Gallop!
32 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
33 Yarn And Glue
34 Same Old Man
35 Bridges And Balloons
36 Does Not Suffice
37 Esme
38 No Provenance
39 Occident
40 Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes
41 Three Little Babes
42 The Fray
43 Inflammatory Writ
44 Instrumental 1999
45 Sprout And The Bean
46 Jackrabbits
47 What We Have Known
48 Prepared Harp Improv.
49 You And Me, Bess
50 The Book Of Right-On
51 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
52 Flying A Kite
53 We Are The Doctor [P]
54 The Things I Say
55 The Man Who Ran The Town [HS/JN]
56 Erin
57 Cassiopeia
58 Little Wing
59 This Side Of The Blue
60 Man’s Road
61 Another Day [RH/JN]
62 Kindness Be Conceived [TG]
63 Against The Sky [VB]
64 If I Were [VB]
=65 Angel
=65 Tom Bombadil
67 Picture [RP/JN]
68 No Style [P]
69 Our Anniversary [S]
70 Spooks [JG, GC, DG, JN]
71 Do You Know Who You Are? [GS]
72 You & Me [KB]
73 Ring The Living Bell [JN/S/WW]
74 Under The Paving Stones, The Beach! [JG, CG, CD, JN]
75 One Horse [P]
76 Good Heart, Money And Rain [MB]
77 Shame [DB/V/JN+friends]
78 Sycamore [BC]
79 Amerilie [V]
80 The Honey, The Power, The Light [GS]
81 Rock Bottom Riser [S]
82 Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
83 Bring Me Down [GS]
84 Sympathy [GS]
85 Lifetime [RF/LM]
86 Exit (aka Orderly Manor) [P]
87 Amour Fou [V]
88 Through The Trees [RF/LM]
89 Never Come Home [P]
90 River Guard [BC]
=91 Another Disaster [P]
=91 Eleven Continents [RF/LM]
=91 If You Can Afford It [P]
=91 Mountain [GS]
=91 Swift Nude [P]
=91 untitled (from One Piece From The Middle) [P]
=97 Don't Make Things [P]
=97 Intermission (aka I The Province) [P]
=97 Oh Canada [P]
=97 Pow Strikes Pow Implosion [NC]
=97 Roots [DB/V/JN/E/SN]
=97 Secret [P]
=97 The Muppet Show Theme [M]
=97 The Wheel [BC]
=97 Wake Up Instead [P]
=106 About Me [P]
=106 Dreams [DB/JN/V]
=106 Hear Me Marching [P]
=106 I'm Already Gone (aka Already Gone) [P]
=106 Life's A Happy Song (Finale) [M]
=106 Mountain & Bear [KB]
=106 Orange Peter [P]
=106 R.U. In [P]
=106 The Conversation [P]
=115 7 Minutes In Heaven [MOB/JN]
=115 France [PG/JN/TF]
=115 Let Go [P]
=115 Little Picture Of You [KB]
=115 Ras Trent [LI]
=115 Setting The Bushes On Fire [NC]
=115 The French Lieutenant Dreams [JN/TF]
=115 The Orchard [PG/JN/TF]
=115 This Is Just To Say
=124 Franks Vs Frank [NC]
=124 Get Wolf Boy And Get In Context [NC]
=124 Ill Pearls [NC]
=124 Nonrum Nonproblem [NC]
=124 Nuflesh, Old Thirst [NC]
=124 Rice Precipitation [NC]
=124 The Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself [NC]
=124 We Are A Crowd [LI]
unplaced - Happy Birthday To You
(this traditional song was performed live late in 2015, but I was unaware of it until the tournament was almost finished)Composition of the Final roundThe First Division consisted of all of the top eleven songs, based on average positions in previous JNSTs,
which is somewhat remarkable, given the relatively small voter turn-out in this year's JNST. This even included Sapokanikan, which had reached 11th place in the cumulative chart on the basis of a handful of live performances, and their (flawed) recordings on YouTube.
The next nine songs in the cumulative chart all made it through to the Final round, but only three of them, Sadie (14th), Good Intentions Paving Company (17th), and Peach Plum Pear (20th), were in the Second
Division. Here they were joined by two 'slow burners' from HOOM (On A Good Day and '81, respectively 25th and 26th in the cumulative chart), and four new songs from Divers (ignoring the fact that Anecdotes made a tentative appearance in JNST4 on the basis of just one voter who had access to it). This division was completed by two more Divers songs that were making their first real appearance, albeit that Divers itself and Leaving The City had, like Sapokanikan, enjoyed a presence in previous JNSTs as a result of live recordings.
As well as the six songs alluded to above (Swansea, Colleen, Easy, Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie, Soft As Chalk, and En Gallop), all from positions 12-20 in the previous cumulative chart, the Third Division included two
brand new songs from the new album, Goose Eggs and Time As A Sympton. Placed onl 33rd and 42nd in the cumulative chart, two more HOOM representatives, Autumn and Ribbon Bows, also enjoyed a rise in
popularity to gain a place in this division. And they were joined by the year's major surprise package,
Yarn And Glue, which has only even been released on an early EP (and now on DVD), and whose previous
position in the cumulative chart was a lowly 44th.
Perhaps we have fallen out of love just a little with her early career. Ten songs not previously in the top 33 made it through to the final stage this year, and so of course, ten songs that previously held those positions have slipped down. Of these, four are from MEM, one is the MEM-era single, and one is from an early EP.
The remaining four are all from HOOM. The full list of these 10 songs, in prior order, is: Bridges And Balloons, Does Not Suffice, Flying A Kite, Sprout And The Bean, The Book Of Right-One, You And Me Bess,
No Provenance, Esme, What We Have Known, and This Side Of The Blue.
The Composition of the Final round was therefore:
- Code: Select all
....... Div 1 Div 2 Div 3 Final as % of Max
e/EP/s - - 1 1 14% 7
MEM - 2 3 5 42% 12
Ys 5 - - 5 100% 5
HOOM 5 3 5 13 72% 18
Divers 1 6 2 9 82% 11
unrel - - - 0 0% 9
collab - - - 0 0% 69
Total 11 11 11 33 25% 131
(e/EP/s = early, EPs, singles; unrel = unreleased solo; collab = collaborations).
(Some songs could fit into more than one category: I exclude those on MEM from the EP/single category,
and I count as unreleased those collaborations on which Joanna is the main performer or vocalist. I termed
he first category 'early / EPs / singles', so as to also catch Instrumental 1999, What We Have Known, and
Colleen).The chart shows that we value the majority of HOOM and Divers within the top 33 songs, which happens
to equate to the top 25% of her output, along with the entirety of Ys, but only a minority (42%) of MEM.
SOME NOTES ON THE FINAL RESULTThe outcome of Division 1, and of the Tournament as a whole, was victory to Only Skin: so surprise there, as it has won every JNST to date, and has never really come under much threat.
Until JNST5, Only Skin had not only won every pairing or group it contested, but also had the overall best record (or at least the equal-best) across every single round of all JNSTs.
This time, though, it did lose that record. In Round 2, its tally of 33 points was exceeded by the 34 scored by Kingfisher, Sapokanikan, Emily, Sadie, and Sawdust & Diamonds. Kingfisher, rather than Only Skin, recorded the highest percentage of points in this round.
In Round 3, Only Skin scored 27 points, equivalent to 46% of the points awarded in its group, but both of these figures were beaten by those of Have One On Me, with 29 points (49%).
With the above comments in mind, then, it was perhaps surprising that Only Skin won at such a canter, coming out on top in all 10 pairings, and garnering substantially more votes than any other song, a total of 83% of those available.
The runner-up spot went, not to Kingfisher or Have One On Me (despite these songs' successes mentioned above), but to Emily, which thus recorded its highest ever position, having previously finished 5th, 3rd, 3rd, and 3rd.
The runner-up from 2013 and 2014, Sawdust & Diamonds, unexpectedly tumbled to 11th spot, having never previously finished out of the top five.
Climbing to 3rd, its highest position since 2011, was In California. This song actually received more votes than any other except for Only Skin.
Sapokanikan became the best-performing song from Divers, perhaps benefitting from the early release of the video, which allowed us all to get that much more familiar with the polished version. It had however finished 13th in each of the previous two JNSTs, purely on the strength of live performances.
Completing the top five was Have One On Me, and in fact there was not very much between the songs in 2nd to 5th positions.
The remaining songs in the First Division also performed well, and were not very far behind in terms of numbers of votes received. Monkey & Bear received the fewest votes, yet still finished 9th, above two other songs, by the narrowest of margins.
Even the 11th (and last) placed song in the division, Sawdust & Diamonds, won two of its pairings, comfortably beating Kingfisher, and also besting Have One on Me.
I suppose this is a good justification for the method chosen to decide the top placings, and also highlights the fact that we might come up with different results when asked to chose between two songs, rather than ordering a list of three or more.
Division Two was dominated by Anecdotes, which therefore claimed 12th place overall, although it did tie with both Sadie and Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne.
Divers proved to be our second most popular song from the new album, narrowly beating Sadie (the top MEM song, which actually received more votes than Divers) into 13th spot overall.
Next came Good Intentions Paving Co., by just a couple of points from Waltz Of The 101st Lightborne, which had a remarkably similar record in the division.
It was very close at the foot of the Second Division, where less than 1 point separated On A Good Day from '81, and it was also interesting that every song in this division won at least one pairing.
Time, As A Symptom was the unbeaten winner of the Third Division, giving it 23rd place overall.
I was sad to see the wonderful En Gallop slipping out of the top 30 for the first time, despite winning 3 pairings. It occupied the middle position of a run of three MEM songs.
Only the surprise qualifier, Yarn And Glue, fared below these three, failing to win (or even tie) any of its ten pairings, and receiving an average of only 1¼ votes per pairing.
Posted: 27 Dec 2015, 22:13
