Quick Shout Out For Ys

I was just listening to Joanna Newsom's album, Ys (apparently pronounced like "ease"), while doing some other things and was compelled to write up a quick shout out on the Great List.

It's gorgeous.

Let me start, though, with the reasons not to like this album. Newsom's voice alternates between achingly beautiful and freaking annoying. There are times when her voice gets all high pitched and saccharine and you're like, "What? What in the world is this girl doing?" And, yes, she uses words like "chim cheree" and "thee" and sings songs about monkeys while plucking out medievalish tunes on a harp. 'Cause people still play the harp nowadays. (Well, in the indie music world, anyway, I guess.)

Then you get past all that. You listen to the whole album while doing something else and have to stop whatever you're doing to listen to a certain odd chord shift or that part 40 minutes into the thing when out of nowhere this man's voice suddenly starts singing and it's kind of religious. And then you listen to it several more times and find that those parts are not only still surprising but that you've found new things to surprise you. So I say, try it. But do listen to the whole thing; it is kind of a symphony, in its way. And listen twice before you judge it, too. The first time was too exhausting for me to make heads or tails of it.