Dublin Opinion

When it comes to female songwriters with a distinctive vocal style opinion is very much divided. For some, their voice make grown men loll their tongue out like thirsty dogs, while others would be happy to trap them in the attic and set fire to the building.

Take Amy Winehouse. Two bloggers expressed widely divergent views on the tattooed lady this week. One, An Spailpín Fánach loves her work:

“And it’s this appreciable level of difference that makes Amy Winehouse special and note-worthy. Ms Winehouse has, in Leonard Cohen’s lovely phrase, been born with the gift of a golden voice. Your faithful quillsman, who hardly ever listens to any music other than classical or Irish traditional any more, having finally choked on surfeit of record company Product, pricked up his ears the first time he saw the video for Rehab while channel surfing, and the chanteuse has remained an object of fascination since.”

Nice

The other, Twenty Major can’t stand her.

“Multiple choice. Which would you choose?
a - Kick her in the gee with a steel capped boot
b - Insert a live scorpion into her anus
c - Cut her lips off and feed them to a starving tramp
I’d more inclined to go with b at the moment. My God, she is an irritating cunt.”

Nasty

Joanna Newsom is a woman who is shaping up to produce the same sharply divided opinions. Men with slight whispy beards will think her an angel of course. She’s pretty and plays a harp for heaven’s sake. But a lot hangs on her idiosyncratic vocal style. New listeners will inevitably make comparisons with Bjork, Kate Bush, and Mary Margaret O’Hara – a bunch of ladies with two clearly delineated camps of lovers and haters.

She’s also very much of the American indie scene. Her partner is Smog man Bill Callahan whose idiosyncrasies increase by the day, or so the mythology goes. Listen to his great Cold Blooded Old Times if you’re unfamiliar with his work.

But listening to Joanna Newsom for the first time yesterday I got the impression that I’m going to like her – a lot. Her latest album release is Ys and according to her Wikipedia entry it was on the top of all the critics best album list for 2006:

“Since its release on November 14, Ys has received widespread critical acclaim, earning a score of 9.4 out of 10 from Pitchfork Media and being ranked at #3 in their Top 50 Albums of 2006. It currently has a score of 88 out of 100 and is 5th highest scoring album of 2006 on Metacritic.”

But it seems inevitable that her voice will divide people. At the start of Peach Plum Pear, to my ears, her singing does grate slightly, and the little girl feyness seems to be on overdrive but as the song builds you find out why so many are getting obsessive. And its got harpiscord.

For her harp playing virtuosity try The Sprout and the Bean

She’s to play Dublin of course and inevitably the gig is sold out. But Moistworks have kindly provided some live songs. (via Meta Filter)

Bridges And Balloons Live


Sadie Live

Emily Live

Also, from Ys

The long and winding Emily (the live version is scratchy)

And the Bjork like Cosmia

The Book of Right-On isn’t from Ys, but its one of my favourites.

When it comes to this caliber of cookie lady singers, I am a fan.