The Oberlin Review
<< Front page Arts February 11, 2005

The Milk-Eyed Mender
Joanna Newsom

“Oh it was a funny little thing...to be the ones to’ve seen.” It’s true, it is indeed a funny thing to hear Joanna Newsom’s music for the first time. Her voice is childlike and haunting, reminiscent of Björk and Holly Golightly. I dare say it supports her poetry in a way that no trained vocal chords could. Ever since Nick Drake records began to show their wear and tear, folk lovers have been awaiting a new artist to crown, and Joanna Newsom is the next princess. She has just debuted her first non-independent album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, on the Drag City record label. Backing up her whimsical lyrics with a concert harp and the occasional harpsichord or piano, the 21-year-old from Nevada City, Calif. has only recently shared her music publicly and has already performed with Cat Power, Devendra Banhart and Bonnie Prince Billy.

There is no question as to why she has made such an impression on audiences. Newsom’s poetry is a collage of imagery, neologisms and unlikely vocabulary. Among the most memorable appear in the song “Bridges and Balloons,” where she croons “The sight of bridges and balloons/ makes calm canaries irritable/ they caw and claw all afternoon/ catenaries and dirigibles/ brace and buoy the living room/ a loom of metal/ warp, woof, wimble.” Equally depictive of the outside world as her innermost ponderings, her lyrics are put together with oddball facility and seamless streams of consciousness. My personal favorite, the twisted and seductive love song, “The Book of Right On,” opens with the poignant declaration, “I killed my dinner...with karate/ kick ’em in the face/ taste the body.” The fact that Newsom’s lyrics at first listen appear nonsensical is what ultimately rocks my boat about her poetry. It’s difficult not to fall in love with what she’s saying, because with every listen, her phrases take on new meanings and yield diverse innuendos. She manages to incorporate mega-metaphors (“palaces and storm clouds/ the wrought straggly sage/ and the smoke/ and the way it will all come together/ in quietness, in time”) with trinkets of didacticisms (“never get so attached to a poem/ that you forget it lacks lyricism”) and fantastical daydreams (“hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh/ hold your breath and clasp Cassiopeia”).

Her musical accompaniments are equally intriguing – Alberti basses, tango rhythms, ephemeral glissandi and experimental harmonic functions. She is skilled in the art of the “catchy” melody and even more impressive at manipulating the affections of listeners through harmony and timbre. I have struggled to listen to any other music since hearing Newsom for the first time. The Milk-Eyed Mender is the next album in my collection to die a slow death of worn grooves and warped edges. The Milk-Eyed Mender is available from Drag City records or the iTunes music store. –Katie Studley
 
 

   

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