Ok so, spoiler alert, these songs are all god-tier.
I wasn't a major fan of Joanna Newsom until maybe around 2017, when I first listened to Soft as Chalk from Have One on Me. Pretty fire song, right? That was my only taste of Joanna's music for a hot minute until Ys popped up in my suggested videos on Youtube. I went and looked it up on Wikipedia, and was amazing at the fact that there were only 5 songs with lengths from 7 - 16 minutes long. It drew me in for sure, and like good shit that it did, this album is amazing. This is probably my 2nd favorite album of all time.
Anyways, if you disagree with these rankings, who cares because these songs are all godly.
NOTES:
- ok for just this album I'm going to put my favorite little bits of each song to see how others compare their favorite bits
EMILY: The part that starts "Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water" or other lines with a similar beginning.
ONLY SKIN: The part that goes from "And the shallow water stretches as far as I can see" to "Are you mine? My heart? Mine anymore?", as well as the duet with Bill Callahan.
MONKEY & BEAR: The first line to Ursala from Monkey starting with "So, my bride, Here is my hand. Where is your paw?" and the part with all of the alliteration about Ursala dancing.
COSMIA: The switch up at "Why've you gone away
Seven suns, seven suns away
Away, away, away" is heavenly.
SAWDUST & DIAMONDS: The ending is really beautiful, starting at "I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight".
OTHER NOTES:
- I think Monkey & Bear is the most underrated track from this album. It never gets enough praise as it should get.
- Random fact, but there's only one single vocal harmony from Emily Newsom, which the song Emily is about, at the line "I've seen your bravery", and I haven't not noticed it once I first heard it.
- The Vinyl Record for this album is a 2LP with a storybook-type lyric sheet in the middle, and it is SO cottage core of Joanna.
Ok so, spoiler alert, these songs are all god-tier.