Truth be told- In the past Joanna Newsom has scared the living crap out of me, and going by her voice I would have said she's a Succubus. Although I never would have denied that her music is beautiful, I definitely wouldn't have classified it as "enjoyable." Her new album Have One on Me lends itself to a more approachable Newsom, and while still slightly haunting, it will not give me nightmares.
I would give a track by track breakdown to the album, but with the album being 18 tracks long, spanning three CDs, I'm afraid doing so would make this review unreadable. Instead I'll venture through the songs I feel like define the album. "Easy"and "Esme" display the vocal change Newsom has made from past works, less eerie and more folksy. One thing that I've always appreciated about Newsom is her harp work, which can be heard on "81" and "Jackrabbits.""Good intentions Paving Company" and "No Provenance" feature a more orchestrated sound.
Long story short, the album is exhausting.
If you happen to believe in full album listens, as I do, this is a difficult album to break down. Like previously stated 18 songs long landscaped over 2 hours, with some tracks breaking 10 minutes. Ladies and Gentlemen, this a folk album. Maybe Yes can pull off that sort of things, but this a different monster. The worst part of it for me is my favorite song on the entire release is "On a Good Day," the only song that remains under 4 minutes. Maybe I'm predisposed to dislike folk music, I just have no idea how someone can make it through, and truly appreciate the whole album without zoning out or thinking Star Wars.
While the album is more tolerable than Newsom's previous works, it's much longer than any of them as well. Maybe if you're into 2 hour folk odysseys, you might enjoy it, but for me, I'd rather take a two hour nap and cut out the middleman.
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