Have One on Me | 
| Artist: Joanna Newsom
Label: Drag City
Category: Music
List Price: $22.98
Buy New: $15.89
as of 7/29/2010 13:06 CDT details
You Save: $7.09 (31%)
New (43) Used (9) from $12.99
Seller: -importcds
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 1719
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 5 x 0.6
UPC: 781484039020
EAN: 0781484039020
ASIN: B0034C263A
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Easy | | • | Have One On Me | | • | '81 | | • | Good Intentions Paving Co. | | • | No Provenance | | • | Baby Birch |
Disc 2
| • | On A Good Day | | • | You And Me, Bess | | • | In California | | • | Jackrabbits | | • | Go Long | | • | Occident |
Disc 3
| • | Soft As Chalk | | • | Esme | | • | Autumn | | • | Ribbon Bows | | • | Kingfisher | | • | Does Not Suffice |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
PITCHFORK 9.2!!! TRIPLE CD!! 125 minutes-worth of songs in deluxe packaging. Through the course of the 18 songs, Joanna visits ditties, weepies, court dances, rump-bumpers, epics & moments of panavision fantasia upon us. Beautiful picture sleeves for each CD plus lyric book. NO EXPORT - for real NO EXPORT
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
 Joanna's romantic phase February 23, 2010
Mr. D. A. Jones
21 out of 27 found this review helpful
I could quite legitimately be described as a Newsom fanboy. I have loved everything she has done from the helium voiced early Ep's to the intricate fables of Ys. I have seen her live 10 times, and would quite like to marry her. So I am biased, I admit it. At the same time, I think I have a sufficiently independent mind to judge each album on its own merits, and am able to hold my swoon long enough to engage my brain (this is not true at her concerts - she could sing me Uzbeki nursery rhymes backwards and I would be spellbound).
My initial reaction to 'Have One On Me' ( as with most of her output) was slightly puzzled and cautiously hopeful. I know from experience that the structure, punctuation and resonances of her work take time to settle and form, so I have let the music slosh through me and wash over me, holding back any critical judgement. And all of a sudden, as I hoped it would, the shape took form. While I have been familiar with some of these songs for a while now, it was a new new one, Go Long that seeded the crystal. The novelty of this album is a typically much longer melodic line, accompanied by a softer voice (brought about by a throat infection last year). The spacier, ringing arrangement of Go Long illustrates this change - gone are sharp points and counterpoints of The Book of Right On et al, or even the rush and tumble of Emily - instead she holds her voice, fluctuating or slowly descending around a slow, deliberate harp.
These songs are given much more musical space than the more wordy Ys, and this, combined with more varied arrangements and drawn out phrases, creates an initial impression of a hazy, unfocussed album. Once you catch the idea though, and let the slow ebb and flow of her newly sanded down voice carry you, you get it. Be it singing of abortion on Baby Birch, or of her own conception on '81, this new 'romantic' sound chimes with a much more straightforwardly emotional approach to her subjects - love, in form and in content, fills these songs. There are a couple which have not made their mark with me yet, but the album as a whole, listened to seriously and in silence, is a great and humbling listen, and I did almost cry many times - the 'kindness prevails' close to Esme had me shivering uncontrollably, and the closing Does Not Suffice is desperately sad and dare I say it, moving.
I have not had the time or wit to trace the links between these songs, but it is clear that some phrases, both musical and lyrical, reappear in different guises throughout the album - their is half jaunty, half sad blues line that haunts both Baby Birch and Does Not Suffice. I am certain that, as with her previous works, listening and relistening will repay and repay. I am looking forward to the work.
The Adventures of Jackrabbit & Kingfisher May 13, 2010
Cabir Davis
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If "Ys" from 2006 has taught us anything, its that eloquence & harmony can go together most remarkably, a fact that Joanna Newsom has attempted to replicate on this triple-disc project. As a standalone body of work it is peerless, as a companion piece to "Ys" it is transcendent, and as a cohesive statement about the artists' work, it is exemplary. However, despite the accolades that one might afford it, the project is indeed `difficult' and a labor to sit through, in portions. This is true even if one has been a Newsom follower for a while. It is also impossible to imagine taking all of this in during one sitting, as it is rather long-winded and deserves a dedicated amount of investment.
"Have One on Me" attempts to chronicle something, though of course the easiest word to ascribe to this is `relationship'. However, as "Ys" has shown us, the lyrical imagery birthed by her lyrics seem far removed from dry and mundane things such as humans and their romantic entanglements. That said, it is difficult to find the baroque, and indeed, medieval elements that made "Ys" so stunning, on this record. At best, this is a very different work, thematically and sonically, with various standouts at every juncture. Ironically, this listener found the much praised tracks ("Good Intentions Paving Company", "Does Not Suffice") to be amongst the weaker of the lot. It appears that Joanna really takes flight with the free-form tracks, and while she sounds pleasant enough on more conventional songs, it is her sprawling mess on the title track, and "Kingfisher" that automatically stand out.
The title track appears inspired by Lola Montez, a real life figure who at one point held sway amongst royal circles in Bavaria, and eventually threatened to bring down the Kingdom (her biography paints her all sorts of colors, but `not interesting' isn't one of them). She was acclaimed for her famous `spider dance' that reportedly ensnared the King of Bavaria who eventually alienated his entire parliament due to his inexplicable obsession with her. In reality, Lola Montez's story is even more fascinating as she became a notorious world traveler and engaged in all sorts of dubious professions before finally taking solace in Christianity. The song traces her journey upward (or whichever direction) and focuses on the prime of her life, which is when she was the talk of subcontinental Europe. As usual, Newsoms' verbose lyrics make this a trip worth taking.
Its also interesting to see that Newsoms' turn of phrase and verbal stylings have undergone a seachange since her last outing. Remember the almost Tolkien-like lyrics of "Emily", and most pointedly on "Only Skin" from "Ys". Gone are the Arthurian verbology of those times, and in its place is a more accessible, or should I say `suburban' sensibility to the songwriting herein. Songs like `Easy' are laughably simple, lyrically, that you wonder if Joanna hasn't traded in her quill for an urban typewriter. Regard this quaint lyric from "Go Long" and that should explain to you the general tone of the songwriting of this recording:
"Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze
Sickly dressage, a princess of Kentucky
In the middle of the woods which were the probable cause
We danced in the lodge like two panting monkeys"
The strangeness of some of the lyrics are matched only by the curious musical arrangements. While "Ys" had an impressive string section with sweeping harmonies that appeared out of nowhere, this recording is far more subdued and a lot calmer, as it trades in those strings for more plaintive piano and harp arrangements. This is both a good and a bad thing as there is a certain `sameness' that permeates the entire album. While this worked to an extent on "Ys", the fact that it was a 5-track album perhaps masked the lingering suspicion that Newsom didn't have many tricks under her sleeve. But if you can get past the occasional `in a rut' passages (there are a couple of times where you would definitely feel `stuck' while listening to this, especially if you are attempting to listen to the 2+ hours at one stretch), you can appreciate the nuances that Newsom brings to the table as a composer. Indeed, there is nary a note out of place, nor a lyric that doesn't match itself to the melody, and for this she deserves high praise.
However, for many reasons, my personal favorite remains `Kingfisher' which appears at the end of this album. It's a big song, not as big as some of the others here but still very, very long and does not conform to any rhythmic structure. Its all over the place but eventually begins to rein it together towards the end as it ties together the various musical elements that came before it. The cryptic lyrics are double entendre, as they veer from straight-forward to masked, and the song can be construed in three very different fashions. Consider these words:
"We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshipping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth
Left us bound, and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking"
But as the song proceeds, such technicalities are left to the wind, as she becomes more direct, more personal, leading up to some of the best songwriting shes ever come up with:
"And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath"
Joanna Newsom may be clubbed along with Devendra Banhart in the `freak folk' movement (a tag that I totally disagree with, by the way), but her ability to write is at least twenty times better than Banharts. Sonically she is moving closer and closer to indefinable territory. There are patches on this record where the newly ascribed Joni Mitchell comparisons seem valid, and there are other places where the Kate Bush comparisons seem resoundingly fair (the album does contain strains of `Hounds of Love', in all fairness). But with her mellowed-down voice, the more direct songwriting, the absolute disregard for musical convention, and her core work with her self-taught instrument - the harp, she has transcended genre and evolved into a completely new musical genre of her own. This is most evident throughout this album, and while "Ys" had hinted at it, "Have One On Me" confirms it.
As there is no living record that could possibly compare to this, save for Newsoms' own "Ys", perhaps you would do well to check out that record first before coming to this. For long-time Newsom aficionados this should be a breeze to get used to (but honestly, I see this album revealing itself over years, not months or days). However, if you could find beauty within "Ariel" by Kate Bush, "The Isle of Dreaming" by Kate Price (whose musical instrumentations can be readily compared to this record), "Parallelograms" by Linda Perhacs, and "Emily" by Emily Dilinger (long out of print, sadly), then this album will definitely work for you. Obviously Newsom makes music that will be discussed, heard, and dissected over generations of music lovers, so this ones for keeps. If any album by a male artist could come close to this, it would have to be "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" by Devendra Banhart.
Five Stars. An indispensable addition to your independent music collection. File next to Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, Jana Hunter, & Meg Baird.
I will stay for the remainder... February 23, 2010
Joseph E. Mitchell (Corpus Christi, TX USA)
17 out of 24 found this review helpful
I can exclaim with tremendous joy and admiration that our little elfin harp-maiden has given us her masterpiece in "Have One on Me," her third album. Her evolution is masterful on these three beautifully intricate little connected "albums," each threaded to each other and yet somehow vital and satisfying in their own right.
Certain days I'm a disc one kind of guy. Tomorrow I might be in the mood for disc three. Who knows? Therein lies the beauty of this album. In dividing these songs over three discs and connecting them in such a way as to reveal the brilliantly interwoven disc-to-disc and album-spanning connections between these songs, "Have One on Me" begs us to dive in with insatiable gusto; with a lust to downright cake ourselves in its rich, inviting soil.
This album was designed to be digested piece by piece, so pacing is obviously essential. Repeated listens and exploration are not only rewarding, but absolutely transcendent. Don't be afraid to open up that little lyric booklet either. The poetry therein is unrivaled in contemporary music.
Her best work yet. April 16, 2010
Jared S. Boggess (Virginia, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Joanna Newsom continues to solidify her place as a timeless songwriter. The mass of songs she's created for this album demonstrates her growing talent and creative prowess. A delight to listen to and so long it seems there's never an end to enjoying to the album.
Album of the Year April 17, 2010
WW85 (New York, NY United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If I find one I like better in 2010 I'll gladly edit this review to reflect it. But that will be a tall order. If this was a 2009 review it would be competing for album of the decade.
I've held off for months writing anything because it is not easy. First impressions, had I written something in February? Monotonous. Long. Indulgent. Why 3 discs? Why not just make one great disc or two really good ones?
I'm sorry Joanna. Sorry for having thought such things. This album is a gift. How to pick one song, or ten, to rave about? Everyone has different taste, so for me to go on as to why I prefer Easy or Occident to Go Long would be senseless. There is something for everyone with the ear for this kind of music. The song structures are masterful. Complex and accessible, they meander, but stay locked in the brain, like the most devious commercial jingles can sometimes... Do I hear a touch of Joni in songs like New Intention Paving Co.? Maybe... But your "California" is unmistakeably not Joni's California. No one should ever pretend that Joanna Newsom sounds like anyone else who has ever been on this planet. That is meant to be the highest possible compliment.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
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