This weather has me wanting love more tangible, something I can hold, because it’s getting cold.
“
| — | Conor Oberst, A Song To Pass The Time |
The Top 20 Albums Of The Decade
20. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
After viewing various ‘end of decade’ album lists, I’ve decided to compile a list of my own favorites. Every single album on the following list has impacted my life in some way, shape or form and I feel the need to share my love for these gifted musicians to all my tumblr followers.
I was first introduced to Joanna Newsom last year by a friend on the bus home from a play and even then -with one earphone in and no idea who she was- I remember being totally intrigued by her strange crooning vocals and melodic harp accompaniment. On first hearing her, you get the initial impression that she’s got an awful voice. And technically speaking, she does. But then again, don’t all the best singers have terrible voices? I was forced to recall Jeff Mangum, with his brutally strained vocal traits and Conor Oberst, with his broken fragmented voice. Oberst actually aknowledges this fact on Road To Joy (the last track from I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, which rest assured will certainly make this list) when he sings “I could’ve been a famous singer, if I had someone elses voice, but failures always sounded better” which is exactly the reason we love these singers, there’s something so honest about the their unrestrained voices which pulsate and stirs emotion deep inside the listener.
Joanna Newsom perfectly captures this attribute in Milk Eyed Mender and juxtaposes it with beautifully tranquil yet complex harp melodies. But this album goes beyond that. It’s an honest portrait of probably one of the most sincere musicians around, with some of the densest and substance-filled lyrics you’re likely to ever hear. Take the lyrics to Sadie for example - one of the most catchy and heartwrenching songs on the album - when she sings:
“And the mealy worms in the brine will burn
In a salty pyre among the fauns and ferns
And the love we hold, and the love we spurn
Will never grow cold, only taciturn”
These lyrics are enfused with so much natural beauty and poetic intensity; it’s awe-inspiring. Her lyrics can be taken on so many levels that you can be forever untangling the complex lyrical web she’s created. When you put these lyrics together with her unabashed child’s croon and her astonishing musical orchestrations; you’ve got one of the best albums you’re like to hear this side of the century and that is why Joanna Newsom deserves a place on this list.
Held to the past, too aware of the pending; loiter the whole day through and lose yourself in lines dissecting love.
“
| — | James Mercer, The Shins |
Just watched Les Chansons D’amour again. I love the French New Wave movement, and since director Christophe Honoure’s work is heavily inspired by Salinger, I thought this film was appropriate. Incidentally, I’ve just finished Franny & Zooey, which was an absolute masterpiece.
You only will create my shame: lady through whos profound and fragile lips the sweet small clumsy feet of April came into the ragged meadow of my soul.
“
| — | E.E. Cummings |
Scoured around town all day in search of some E.E Cummings, finally found a little paperback overpriced in a secondhand store. Got lunch in a vegetarian café and inquired about a job, then picked up a copy of Salinger’s Franny & Zooey from Waterstones. I purchased some onions for cooking dinner, some orange juice and two pints of milk and pondered home in the rain. Simple pleasures are the key to contentment right now, I swear.
casimirpulaskiday:phoenix / 1901 / la blogotheque take away show
I love these guys, they released my favorite album of the year, and I also got the pleasure to see them live back in october.
You make me wanna pick up a guitar, and celebrate the myriad ways that I love you.
“
| — | Slow Hands, Interpol |
@ starryeyedme
I haven’t read any Marquez yet. I know that One Hundred Years of Solitude is supposed to be amazing, but after reading up on both, Love In The Time of Cholera sounded more engaging. It’s actually been sitting on my shelf since the Summer now, and I’ve put off reading it; not sure why. I just read the first couple pages though and his prose sounds rich & artful, so thankyou for the suggestion starryeyedme, I think I’ll go with this next.
