TITTWW continue to laud, debate, discredit, and dismiss Joanna Newsom's Ys

There was bitter, genuinely hostile conflict in the crowd over the "stand up or sit down" issue. She mentioned that during her Chicago show people argued the whole time and "it was really depressing". Here people decided to sit, which was good.

Aside from that weird off-putting accent/articulation of hers that (as Edward noted earlier) has been considerably toned down as of late, I found her voice to be strong, well trained, precise, and very emotionally resonant. The band was similarly ON. The saw solo was indeed lovely. It sure looked like she was wiping away tears between some of the Ys songs.

ALso worth mentioning that she did 4-5 solo pieces first, then the entire album in order, then another 3 song encore, easily a 90-minute set.

Arrangement dislikers need to just listen to "Sawdust And Diamonds", which is pure harp goodness. And yes, "Monkey And Bear" was much better in a stripped down version.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061204/music_nm/review_music_newsom_dc

the others im still trying to figure out.

i haven't 'discovered' the structure of the songs on ys either (apart from 'cosmia' which is relatively straightforward), though i've no doubt there are structures; i kind of enjoy it as an improvised listening experience.

are you people retarded? you just might be.

I started one on the old ILX thread (or at least blathered at length about "Emily" until people started slowly backing out of the thread without taking their eyes off me):
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:j9nl7SOut1EJ:ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php%3Fmsgid%3D7225866

well just think of each song as having several choruses that she comes back to rather than verse/chorus/verse/chorus/blah/blah/blah.

thats not a hard and fast rule, though. "Sawdust and Diamonds" is more like a series of long and crescendo'd verses. "Only Skin" is ambulatory but works in several cycles with random phrasing in between.

Its better to think of the structure of the songs like poems than linear prose: lots of self-referencing, weaving of meaning, rhymes and slant rhymes. Go read some Whitman or Yevtushenko and then come back to it.

I wouldn't call my cat an acquired taste.

http://files.filefront.com/Joanna_Newsom_Live__The_Fdivx/;6254877;;/fileinfo.htmlhttp://files.filefront.com/Joanna_Newsom_Live__The_Fdivx/;6254877;;/fileinfo.html