¤ milky moon ¤

cliquott wrote:I still don't get the hate on My Provenance.

While it's not one of my favourites, I realised the other day that it's the perfect bridge between Good Intentions and Baby Birch. Disc 1 wouldn't be the same without it.

You and Me, Bess. By far.

Woah, seriously? Why? It's one of the tracks I've never been able to like.

If I haven't before I'll restate my favourites from HOOM; Baby Birch, Does Not Suffice, Go Long.

Weirdelves wrote:Woah, seriously? Why? It's one of the tracks I've never been able to like.

It's a simple, refreshing song that allows for the scales almost broken by Baby Birch and No Provenance to be lightened a bit. The melody is lovely, however the brass gets annoying and it could be a few minutes shorter. The story in this one is also less abstract and to the point. The lyrics are great, too, my favourite line being "My heart made the sound of snow falling from eaves". I'd always skipped it before but now I love it.

I actually really love You And Me, Bess, although I can certainly understand why people wouldn't. I like it when I can actually follow a song's narrative without having to really think about it, which is rare for Joanna And I do love some of the imagery (mother nature is a slimy, vomiting mother bird!) and I actually really like the brass and the vocal melodies and the pacing, which most people seem to dislike. I also love the way Joanna says 'you and me, Bess, we was as thick as thieves', god knows why

I love Baby Birch but I never thought it was paced amazingly well

If I had to round it down to two, my favourites would be Have One On Me and In California. They're obvious choices, but there's a reason for that Autumn and Good Intentions come close, I think.

I really agree about Autumn, I came to it late but it's so great.

I think the reasons I dislike You and Me Bess and Ribbon Bows more than the others is that I see little beyond the narrative. I agree both have a few great lines in there but so does all the rest of her stuff, along with genuinely brilliant philosophical and emotive insights which I just don't get from these tunes; for me they're just the stories and nothing more. Which is, admittedly, still pretty good.

Maybe Ribbon Bows is a bit lyrically shallow compared to others - I mean, it's not exactly 'srs Joanna-face' like In California and Kingfisher are - but I think it's a really beautiful song. I love the vocal melodies and the instrumentation.

'Do you want your love, love? Come and get your love' can be a bit annoying though

Autumn is ridiculously underrated.

When I sat down to work out what Autumn was actually about I was really amazed.

I'm always so struck by the verse:

'I may have changed, it's hard to gauge
Time won't account for how I've aged
Would that I could tie your lying tongue
Who says that leaving keeps you young'

So so beautiful.

It's also written for a very mature and measured perspective, along with Sawdust and Diamonds I'd say it's the only one that seems to be about someone leaving a really serious, long term relationship. Great stuff.

I think Go Long is lyrically the best song. But often when I'm just picking one song to listen to on the ipod while walking to the shop I inevitably seem to pick Soft as Chalk which is a great song too, where she really shows off what she can do with her voice.

I do adore the lyrics in go long. Fire pits and swaying on elephants, mastering everything. AWESOME

I didn't even notice the song until about the fourth time through the album but, for now at least, it is definitely my favourite.

In California is another gorgeous one but as with a lot of the songs on the album, due to their length, there are good bits and not-so-good bits within each track. I think Go Long is one of the most consistently beautiful songs on the album. When I finally noticed it I found that it stayed with me for ages...very haunting.

Is there an appetite for another JNST? If so, would anyone like to organise it, or shall I? I am aware that there's almost no new stuff, but at least it can be better put together than last time, with no 'late entries' I hope! I thought the basic structure was OK though ... but that's just me.

Just speaking personally, but that would certainly be interesting I've always felt that most of my favourites (Monkey & Bear, Autumn, Peach Plum Pear etc) are everybody else's least favourites

What is a JNST?

I believe it stands for 'Joanna Newsom Song Tournament.' I think it would be cool, Steve! I missed the beginning of the last one.

I've done stuff like it before, but nowhere near as well organised as Steve's unless I did it and C&P'd all his posts

Steve: I think we could start another one soon! The last one was in March, I believe? I think that if we use the same pattern as last time it will work out really well. Especially because we have the data from last time, I figure seeding will be considerably more robust than it was a year ago.

With regards to Ribbon Bows, it is probably my most-listened to song on the album. I like it like I like a Beatles song. It's classic, it has a perfect melody and a soothing chord progression. It sounds like a song I've heard a hundred times before, but it is completely original. It is that combination of catchy-ness and novelty that I search for when I look for good music. Lyrically, it's relevant to me because I was really struggling with the whole "is god real" issue when this record came out. Ribbon Bows FTW!!!!

Absolutely agree, Ribbon Bows is amazing. I think it took learning to play it to really appreciate it, because as a song it's so understated, but that melody is gorgeous. It also gave me so much respect for her voice in the song. It's like warm honey. Ribbon Bows is the perfect example of why I think her HOOM voice is so much better. I don't think she could have pulled off a song like this in 2004.

Dunno about the Beatles comparison though

Well, voting and knife fights. Except the knife fights.

Andrew wrote:Just speaking personally, but that would certainly be interesting I've always felt that most of my favourites (Monkey & Bear, Autumn, Peach Plum Pear etc) are everybody else's least favourites

Isn't Peach Plum Pear one of everyone's favorites, though?

I agree though, No Provenance was my favorite on HOOM (though now it's rivaled with You and Me, Bess and Easy) and I felt like everyone was kinda putting it down.

Song tournament sounds fun.