"Only Skin" is but one track off of Joanna Newsom's truly epic album Ys, but this single song is a real doozy. At 16 minutes+ in length, it's probably one of the longer pop songs around, if it could even really be referred to as "pop." It's really much more complicated and layered than the vast majority of what passes for pop.
Anyway, it's one long, fairy-tale like poetic parable for the perennial confusion of romantic relationships, the vast pleasures and joy, pain and strife, storms and sunshine, abundan
ce and lack, with rich descriptions and allusions including references to antiquated and fantastical forms such as "fire breathers," a "toothless hound dog," a weeping sea gull and a "hairless and blind cavalry," among many others.
It feels like there are several distinct musical movements through the length of the song, the music deftly winding and dancing around multiple emotions, much like the "twisting and braiding" river, the "lazy cinder smoking" and the "estuaries of wax-white" that wend through its lyrics.
This song is incomperable, a stunner.
If you haven't heard it or all of Ys yet, now is the time, when the leaves are falling, the air is full of woodsmoke and the change of seasons makes the earth and its brethren, described so beautifully here, feel that much closer.
And P.S.: Please check out two special interviews with Joanna's touring drummer, Neal Morgan, about his new record To the Breathing World. To get in the mood, check out his masterful work on the EP Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band!
Anyway, it's one long, fairy-tale like poetic parable for the perennial confusion of romantic relationships, the vast pleasures and joy, pain and strife, storms and sunshine, abundan
It feels like there are several distinct musical movements through the length of the song, the music deftly winding and dancing around multiple emotions, much like the "twisting and braiding" river, the "lazy cinder smoking" and the "estuaries of wax-white" that wend through its lyrics.
This song is incomperable, a stunner.
If you haven't heard it or all of Ys yet, now is the time, when the leaves are falling, the air is full of woodsmoke and the change of seasons makes the earth and its brethren, described so beautifully here, feel that much closer.
And P.S.: Please check out two special interviews with Joanna's touring drummer, Neal Morgan, about his new record To the Breathing World. To get in the mood, check out his masterful work on the EP Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band!
r Miss Bjork on her upcoming tour for two whole dates:
ar Joanna's new ep that is coming out next Tuesday on 
s, Nash and Young, Michael Bolton, etc etc. All the greats. Anyway, I am waiting with most eager anticipation for this latest release, and will give a full report as soon as I hear it. Oh yeah, it's also gonna have some live tracks from the Ys tour and including her crackerjack band of Miss Katie Hardin, Mr Neal Morgan, Mr Kevin Barker, Mr Ryan Francesconi, and Mr Dan Cantrell. Seeing the Ys songs performed live was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had at a show-- this band cooks! And so do the songs. Hopefully everyone's heard Joanna's Ys by now; if not, you are coo coo-- go check it out immediately! Bjork's new album Volta comes out May 7. All of this gives me so much to look forward to!
