Divers

A masterpiece

Oh what she does. You are gone before its through and you go back endlessly. You are melted. You are nothing but an ear, trying to grab hold of perfect moments of sound, passing by too quickly with their towering layers of questions and answers. Peaks of songs that move into you, ripping through the space above you and the floor below you in a tireless contruction of tiny golden cities upon your head.

Joanna Newsom never fails to dissapoint. This album is a great place to start for anyone new to her music.

It has been over a year since this album was released, and it still stands strong against the greatest compositions in history. Divers is right up there with Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Joanna Newsom is a total master of both composition and delivery.

I was excited when I heard the instrumentals start and then...she opened her mouth. I don't think a cat caught in a fan belt could sound any worse. Holy Crap this album stinks! I think my ears are bleeding. I gave this one star only because I had to in order leave feedback.

I love Milk-Eyed Mender and Ys. Love... can listen to them all day. With Have One On Me I started to see a departure from the Joanna I loved in those first albums, and now with Divers I'd say that departure is complete. I feel like she tried to bring some maturity to her music in Have One On Me, which left some of the playfullness behind that I adored in her previous work. Not terrible, just not what I'd grown to love before. Now with Divers I feel like she's trying to get back to where she once was, and it's just not working. The vocals are shrill, and the playfullness feels forced by broken melodies. I keep wanting to love her new work, but I just can't.

I love Joanna Newsom and I am excited to see her in concert again. She is a rare talent and intriguing soul. However, I miss the innocence, simplicity, and harpistry of "Bridges and Balloons".

I mean, what the hell is this? It sounds like elvish folk music played on a Lord of the Rings parody. I like a good, distinct voice, but this woman's voice is nails on a chalkboard. I know a lot of hipsters like this, I don't get it, and deep down, I don't think they really do either.

As a Spotify subscriber, this is the first album I've purchased on iTunes in quite some time. "Well worth it" doesn't begin to describe the experience of listening to this revelatory music. What a magnificent introduction into the world of Joanna Newsom. Get it and get lost in it.

I absolutely loved Milk Eyed Mender. I don't love this. I don't even like it. I get that Joanna is not stagnant and she has changed. Unfortunately the change wasn't for the better. Now, the fanboys and fangirls are going to say I am wrong, but the proof is in the sales. No track from this album will go as high in the charts as did Book of Right On. The music is now less accessible, it has become busied, and she is reluctant to give us simple, repeatable, sing-along melody. Too-ooh-ooh much uch uch sta-ccato-oh-oh lyric and far too many time changes. She's still over-thinking it and is absent purity of sound. The songs are no longer soothing in the way that En Gallop is. Shame, that. She was so great in her debut. Go back and listen to the rawness and from-the-loins nature of "Three Little Babes". The new stuff is the complete opposite of that. It's now from the head, soulless, internalized, and consumed with itself.