Egad! I just spit out my London Fog latte!! Can it have been FIVE YEARS since the walls of our cozy coffee shop corners and reading nooks have last heard from “that folk artist” Joanna Newsom already?! (To be honest, I hardly even noticed! Because I still haven’t fucking finished listening to that last album from 2010 yet.)
But shit, I’ll have to fret over what the fuck I’ve been DOING with my life since 2010 a little bit later, because right now, I’m SO TOTALLY FOCUSED on the fact that Joanna is back with a new album on Drag City. And according to the press release, you, me, and everyone else in the public library ARE ALL OBLIGATED TO LOSE OUR SHIT over it (in the quietest and classiest manner possible, of course). It’s called Divers, and it hits our ears October 23 on a couple’a different formats that you can pre-order over here. There’s also a video for the album track “Sapokanikan” streaming at the Grinder.
The album, which is thankfully a little slimmer-looking than the last one, includes arrangements that I’m sure are all “very whimsical” by all the usual badasses: Nico Muhly, Ryan Francesconi, Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), and Newsom herself. It was recorded recorded by Steve Albini and Noah Georgeson, and mixed “in phantasmagoric (look that word up yourself, man), deep-sea-saturation” by Georgeson and Newsom. Its title seemingly refers to the idea that the music, ya know, “dives forth with a pure love and respect for the traditions and mysteries of man, such that we can feel the surge of life itself passing over our bones as we hear the songs and sounds, the players and the arrangements; as basic maths are reviewed to uncover heights of joy and sorrow, all traced in triumphal arches and supernumerary rainbows through eternal amber, gleaming in analog entrapment — with that VOICE riding high atop.” Which is another way of saying that it’s better than all the shit we’ve been listening to for the past five awful, terrible, disgusting, musically-barren years of our pathetic and insignificant lives. Well… except maybe for her last album — which, again, I’m pretty sure is still just-now nearing its conclusion back in my studio apartment.
Divers tracklisting:
01. Anecdotes
02. Sapokanikan
03. Leaving the City
04. Goose Eggs
05. Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
06. The Things I Say
07. Divers
08. Same Old Man
09. You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
10. A Pin-Light Bent
11. Time, As A Symptom
• Joanna Newsom: http://www.dragcity.com/artists/joanna-newsom
• Drag City: http://www.dragcity.com