Pitchfork gives Ys a 9.4
My commenters might not dig it, but Pitchfork has given Joanna Newsom's Ys a 9.4, tied with their highest score so far of 2006.
The people who hear this record will split into two crowds: The ones who think it's silly and precious, and the ones who, once they hear it, won't be able to live without it.
I'm much closer to the latter.
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i don't like (what i've heard of) it, but not because it's silly and precious. one could almost say i dislike it *in spite* of it being silly and precious.
this notion (from the review) of her phrasing "sticking another code on top of [the lyrics]" is probably not true, but it made me think of solresol, the artificial color/music language. i can imagine the actual output of a solresol poem being hard to listen to/watch. layering meaning has to be done precisely or it can fail big time.
Disliking it in spite of its being silly and precious, Jon May, that's excellent. I'm a bit different- still haven't listened to the whole thing, but I have a really really really strong feeling that I'm neither going to think it's silly and precious nor feel like I can't live without it. But before I say more I am going to actually listen to the whole thing, tonight maybe.
Mind you the other 9.4 was for the Hold Steady, which I find terrible.
I haven't heard it yet, but not really my genre of music the Hold Steady is.
Oh good god, the Hold Steady is the only other 9.4 in pitchfork history? That's just silly.
2006. They've given out a few 10.0s in their past, but they've admitted that it's fairly arbitrary selection. They gave Music Has the Right to Children a 10.0 when it was re-released. Same goes for Bonnie "Prince" Billy's I See A Darkness, The Flaming Lips's The Soft Bulletin, and Radiohead's Kid A.
So if Pitchfork is to be believed, the new Califone record is not as good as Miss Newsom's latest by a measure of 0.7. I strongly disagree by a measure of 1.9.
The Hold Steady = that band that your friend insists is awesome with nothing in particular to qualify this statement. If you ask me they are pretty much like Firewater, which was an act that had some good bar-band moves, believed it was pretty witty, and was ultimately nothing special.
JN's lyrics are very literate, I'll give her that, but again: dungeons and dragons, dudes. I hope you brought the pouch for the 18-sided die. You'll need it what with the high charisma rating of freak-folk.
I have invited this punishment. Swing away!
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