Soundtracks: Joanna Newsom Ys

We may be falling for newly "NYLON-endorsed fashion icon" Joanna Newsom, and not just because one of the press photos for her just-released record Ys shows the 24-year-old San Franciscan harpist wearing a wolf pelt on her head (although that helps very much). While I do have some big love for "Peach, Plum, Pear" (at least partly because of its use in Gaelle Denis's beautiful short film City Paradise, which you will watch immediately if you like stuff that makes you blissfully giddy), I never really felt totally consumed by Joanna's first record The Milk-Eyed Mender. But Ys is sort of my world right now, one of the first CDs in a long time that I've felt compelled to put on "repeat" on my stereo before bed just so I can fall asleep to the songs and hear them upon waking up in the middle of the night (which I always do, for some reason).

Probably you already know the basics: five tracks, all at least nine minutes long; a 32-person orchestra, with arrangements by Van Dyke Parks; mixed by Jim O'Rourke; partially recorded by Steve Albini. But even though Ys is this epic and awesomely ambitious thing, there's something so sweetly quiet and - dare I say? -intimate about the album, and most of the time you feel like it's just you and the creaky-voiced singer, and she's reading to you from some dusty old fairy-tale storybook and letting you turn the pages all on your own.

I first heard Ys in early September while walking to a cabin in the woods in the mountains of Colorado at dusk, and in the middle of the first track about 20 horses came galloping across the road and over to the pasture to my right. Which is so perfect it's kind of ridiculous, but if you can orchestrate a similar scenario for yourself, I'd highly recommend it. I'm sure it's going to make the most gorgeous soundtrack for mid-winter walking through the snow, and maybe you can even get yourself a wolf pelt to help keep your happy ears all nice and warm while you're listening.

Posted by Liz in Soundtracks
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