I hope you're doing well. Freezethony Frametano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review, a classic review, in fact, of the Joanna Newsom album, Ys.

This is the second full-length studio LP of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, but especially harpist, Miss Joanna Newsom. A California musician whose unique idiosyncratic sound would change the face of a lot of things.

I will say, though, before I kick off this review, I don't hear quite as much discussion of Joanna's music these days, as, personally, I think I should. Maybe it's because the time period in which she blew up is a bygone era at this point. Maybe it's because her winding, challenging, wondrous songwriting doesn't exactly fit into the narrow expectations of streaming platforms that covertly push songwriters to make viby, folk, playlistable, wallpaper bullshit. Or maybe it's because it's been so long time since she has been really active and on her music grind. While this record here is nearly 20 years old at this point, Joanna's last album, Divers, is now a decade old.

Plus, on some level, she's always been a bit elusive when it's come to the limelight, though she still does have a tendency to pop up here and there, like as a surprise opener for Fleet Foxes in 2023. And, being married to comedic actor Andy Samberg, she once turned up on an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

So yeah, Joanna has shown herself not to really be desperate for anyone's attention. But the music held within her records has always been so strong and so singular that it hasn't required a media-savvy personality or an in-your-face pitch to get the beauty of them across, to really sell people on them. Which is why when you think of an instrument the harp, your mind as a music fan pretty much goes right to Joanna Newsom.

Also, to this day, she is still one of the most impactful figures to come out of the indie folk scene in the 2000s. A sound and a movement she is often associated with, though I could spend five minutes in this video alone going over the freak folk categorization, pulling that label and its history and its accuracy apart. But in retrospect, I feel like Joanna was often given that label because because that's the scene where her art originally thrived, where she really started to build her audience.

I mean, over the years, she has put out music. She has certainly shared a lot of common listeners with the likes of Animal Collective as well as Devendra Banhart. For sure, it has been reported that Will "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy" Oldham was essentially the one that gave her demo to the heads over at Drag City Records that eventually led to the release of her debut album.

That record certainly a lot going on in it musically beyond folk. For one, there were the vocal jazz influences oozing out of numerous tracks on that record that came out a bit more boldly on her Have One On Me triple LP. There's also the baroque influences on that record, which are pretty much inseparable from her instrument of choice.

If there is some folk DNA in Joanna's music, it's a strain of it that is much more archaic and esoteric than what we often hear in a lot of Western songwriters' stuff who are essentially trying to reconnect with this broad sense of Americana. The more traditional elements of Joanna's music have more in common with weird tongue-in-cheek fables or, I don't know, an Appalachian granny, strumming an autoharp for an audience of squirrels.

Generally speaking, though, I think Joanna's music has always been more progressive than it has been Old World. In that sense, she's always reminded me of the likes of Bjork and Yoko Ono and Joni Mitchell as well as Laurie Anderson, in that she really defies categorization in many ways and has an instantly recognizable style that truly makes her one of one.

Ys is a one of one type of album. Some of the closest comparisons I could draw to this record are albums that came after it that it clearly inspired. It even stands out as wholly unique in Joanna's discography itself. The lyricism, personally, I find to be way more dramatic and otherworldly than on any of her other records. The winding and epic song structures also make her very beautiful but polarizing debut seem conventional by comparison, especially given a lot of the songs in that tracklist you could quickly pop on to see whether or not they were clicking with you in a matter of moments. Meanwhile, the opening track on Ys is 12 minutes long, and the rest of the tracks range from 7 to 16 minutes.

Now, musically on this record, Joanna is truly leaning into the more archaic elements of her songwriting and her sound. Even down to the cover on this record, she is truly on some medieval shit. And Joanna Newsom has help along the way in conjuring this vibe by some pretty surprising and unlikely figures. For one, the mixes on this record were done by one of modern music's true avant-gardeists, Jim O'Rourke. And the songs themselves were captured to tape by the late great recording legend, Mr. Steven Albini, who up to this point was known mostly for his contributions to grunge and noise rock through Big Black and Nirvana's In Utero.

We also have producer, songwriter, and arranger, Mr. Van Dyke Parks, who was involved in this record in a big way. We're talking about a guy here who is a truly unique talent and has worked with the likes of the Beach Boys, as well as Randy Newman, has done numerous soundtracks for television and film, not to mention his own solo work, which has a very strong cult following behind it. For this Joanna album, he crafted a series of wonderful original orchestral arrangements that just enhance the storybook like qualities these songs already contained by themselves.

Now, in total, there are only five songs on this record, but the brevity of the tracklist is made up for by the sheer density of the songs that I was referring to earlier. And while it all works together holistically as an album for sure, each track is a world unto itself, thanks to Joanna's very thoughtful lyrics and world building. She has been quoted saying the opening track "Emily" is quite biographical, essentially being about her sister who it is named after. But given the framing of the song on the opening, you would think she was on about something that was much more imaginary and mystical:

"The meadowlark and the chimcheree and the sparrow / Set to the sky in a flying spree for the sport of the Pharaoh / Little while later, the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow / Do you remember what they called up to you and me in our window?"

Later, though, the writing gets much more straightforward, and I would say beautifully meta in terms of this sisterly connection going on. It speaks of this time when her sister was telling her about the stars, and she made this promise to essentially write this down and work this into a verse so that she'd never forget this moment and what she learned.

The track from there dives deeper into tragedy and metaphor before it ultimately comes full circle and makes it all once again about the stars and the meteorites in the night sky. Joanna speaks of suffering through loneliness and difficult times, but seemingly sees it all as being a part of something greater than herself, almost as if it's all preordained in some way.

And while the track is lengthy, it's still quite engaging, very much thanks in part to the orchestrations brought by Parks, which all move along with the story perfectly. It's like listening to two dancers just with perfect spatial awareness of each other, going through some very intricate choreography. You could also liken it to, I don't know, listening to a movie.

I think this is even more so the case for the following "Monkey and Bear", which begins at a point of urgency, with Joanna singing, "Down in the green hay where monkey and bear usually lay / They woke from a stable boy's cry / He said, Someone come quick / The horses got loose, got grass sick / They'll flounder, fain, they'll die!" – which, of course, is all delivered with these warbly little vocal harmonies, some touches of oboe and woodwinds.

And narratively, soon after this, we learn that Monkey and Bear are essentially stuck or trapped on this farm. Monkey essentially makes the case for an escape. But there is some trickery afoot here. Bear is essentially sold a bill of goods, and rather than being brought to a better life or circumstances or whatever by Monkey, she is instead just exploited by him. And as deeply steeped as the song is in metaphor, the further it goes along, the more of a sense I get that the storytelling is quite personal for Joanna, especially as she exhibits more and more disdain for Bear's situation in the writing.

Following this, "Sawdust and Diamonds" is the one track on the record that is just vocals and harp alone, but it's no less enthralling than any other track on the record. But I will admit I have made a bit of a mistake in this review as up until this point, I haven't really gone that far into talking about Joanna's voice. I feel like this track is a great opportunity to do so.

Now, Joanna's singing is quite unique and isn't necessarily going to be for everybody. It's been likened at times almost dismissively as that of, I don't know, a child or an old lady. For sure, it does have a unique timbre and a lot of very squeaky embellishments and quirks. Even on this album, where arguably, she had, by this point, smoothed out a lot of the rougher qualities of her vocal delivery on her demos. And this centerpiece of a song on the record, in my opinion, is just a perfect example of the emotional power as well as the range of Joanna's voice.

Some of the sounds she's squeezing out of her vocal cords are honestly unreal. They sound a little animalistic or just not even coming from something that is a living being, maybe more like a creaky door or violin strings being scraped.

But all of these weird and noisy details are by no means a mistake. They are all executed on this record with extreme precision, which she also showcases through her incredible vibrato as well as the complex melodies she's nailing all over this album. Her voice also compliments how theatrical these songs are so well. It's essentially the reason words like "captivating" exist.

After this, we have the longest song on the album, "Only Skin", which really adds to the holistic narrative quality of the record. It very much continues the biographical storytelling of the intro and once again filters it through this fantastical lens. Of course, it's soundtracked by more flowery arrangements and stellar harp playing, and comes to a grandiose finish, thanks in part to some really cool background vocal work from Bill Callahan. But believe me when I say the song really truly justifies its length. It's nothing short of spellbinding and showcases how well Joanna's music works as being listened to in different ways, as directly engaging with it is an amazing experience, but it's something you could also just get lost in the wonder of, too.

Then we move on to the closer, where in its opening moments, the Björk influence really comes through. Between the vocal phrasing and the plucky harp notes, it really sounds like something that could have been on Vespertine several years earlier. And narratively, once again, things come full circle with the opening track, where Joanna is once again wrestling with sadness, with loneliness, with longing. Things come back to the river and the night, which in this instance, I believe, is likened to bad things coming in, bad experiences, negative experiences that Joanna was powerless to stop, but no less feels a regret over them for some reason.

It's the shortest track on the record, and it feels almost like a breeze to listen to in comparison with a lot of everything else here. Not only because of some of the bright, jaunty, warm musical switch-ups that happen across the length of the track, but a bit of rhythm picking up the tempo of the song in one pocket, too.

There are a lot of passages and moments across this record that are quite sad and mournful and honestly, pull at your heartstrings. But I love that this song brings things to a hopeful conclusion. Like a lot of the old world storytelling that very obviously influences this record, things come to a bit of a happy ending in a way, at least in terms of the narrator coming to a revelation that gives them a better perception on things.

But yes, that is this amazing, one-of-a-kind album that I absolutely positively beg you to listen to if you have not already because, I mean, goddamn, it's amazing and also a classic, which is why I reviewed it. Yeah.

Anthony Fantano. Joanna Newsom. Forever.