Review: Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
It’s impossible to even mention Joanna Newsom without commenting on her insanely distinctive voice, let alone review an album of hers. Her voice is remarkably polarizing and has been described as a cross between a dying grandmother and a 4-year-old child and delicate and thickly vibrating, a
crooning caterwaul. Yet her voice isn’t even the most intimidating thing about Have One On Me. That honor would have to go to the album’s running time. Spanning three discs and clocking in at about two hours, it certainly seems like her most ambitious work yet.
Admittedly, when I first listened to her after a friend raved about her to me, I was immediately put off by the horrible shrieking. I couldn’t understand a thing she was saying and, consequently, dismissed her as folksy pretentiousness. To say the least, I was not at all excited to hear that she planned on releasing more of her wretched music. Luckily I gave Have One On Me a shot, and it definitely changed my opinion of Newsom.
The sound itself is much more streamlined and welcoming than her previous work. The instrumentation is simpler and more immediately engrossing than before and her voice is much more palatable this time around. I found myself actually enjoying the intricacies of her vocals and was able to appreciate some of her fantastic songwriting, particularly on the track “Good Intentions Paving Company.” The song is, in a way, about everything, and I absolutely love it for that. The lyric that struck me the most (“How I said to you, ‘honey, just open your heart’ / When I’ve got trouble even opening a honey jar / And that right there is where we are”) says a lot in just a few words. It describes a problematic relationship that I find remarkably relatable. In fact, the album itself encompasses pretty much the full spectrum of human emotion. It feels very complete, like every song is part of a cohesive whole. My biggest fault with it is the length. Not that anything feels particularly like filler, but it almost feels like a slog sometimes, especially if you’re not particularly a fan of her harp-fueled fairytale-folk sound.
Despite the more accessible feel to this album, no one could mistake it for anything but Newsom. She managed to change her sound enough to attract people who couldn’t stand her without isolating those that always loved her sound. Taking into account the fact that I very nearly despised her previous
work, I’d say Have One On Me is quite an accomplishment.
Joanna Newsom:
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John is a 19 year old pop culture obsessed dork from Louisville, Kentucky.Email this Author | All posts by John
It’s a great album but I’m pretty much treating it as 3 albums because of the way it’s split. I don’t think I’ve listened to the whole thing in one go.
Her voice has softened over time as well. The squeeking on her first album put a lot of people off but I really like the songs on that one. They’re a lot shorter and more varied in terms of style.