sweetness of being

can’t stop thinking about joanna effortlessly changing from harp to piano (full video from matt a)

only skin, joanna newsom

this is so fucking funny to me. i can just imagine joanna writing something as beautiful as, “the nullifying, defeating, negating, repeating, joy of life” and then immediately knocking over the chair next to her in a surge of happiness 

the reason Joanna Newsom’s music has become so popular & with every new album release she gains exponential numbers of new über-fan isn’t just due to her loquaciousness and infinite mastery of rhythm and language, it isn’t just due to the uniqueness of the harp, or the strange and oblique quality of her voice that is all at once crone, maiden, mother, and God, it isn’t just due to all of these combined with the absolutely sublime nature of her harmonies and vast musical sensibilities.

It’s all of that and then this one major thing: that she throws herself head-first into the terrifying, all-consuming void of human experience and limitation—that she protests and cries, and trembles, and gets the blues way deep down, and calls out to people who are long gone without a shred of embarrassment and shame, and loves so resolutely with fear and without fear, with hardness and softness, with strangeness and austerity, with a cosmic certainty that there is so much more to life and death and yet that this life is all there is.

this photo exudes so much power

joanna newsom on late night with seth meyers, part 1

she talks about her music and how she met andy samberg (andy’s version)

march 16, 2016

thanks to @juliadorable for the link to the vídeo. and to @madeofitzits for being the first person to show me this gem.

Joanna Newsom leaning against her harp is my aesthetic.

Joanna Newsom at Calvin College, Grand Rapids (2010). photography by Graeme Flegenheimer

Harmonic Links Between Songs in Joanna Newsom’s Divers

Divers is an album concerned with the cyclical nature of time, and many of the songs on the album link together as a manifestation of this theme. The most well-known one is the clipped ‘trans-’ at the end of Time, As A Symptom linking to ‘sending’ in Anecdotes, forming ‘transcending’, making a perfect loop from the end to the beginning of the album. In addition to this, there are also links between songs in the music - many of the songs start on the same chord as the final chord of the previous song, or have a melodic link between the two chords. Below is a list of these harmonic and melodic links with explanations, and I’ve made an audio clip above that demonstrates the way they link together sonically.

@petenewsom on Instagram captioned: 

 "#tbt My lovely and cool sis Jo standing among some Druidic ruins.“

It’s probably not so coincidental that in the Sapokanikan video, Joanna bears a stark resemblance to a grim reaper or a figure from out of time. It’s an unfeminine persona (well, Death is supposed to be), but it’s certainly there.

I mean, to think that Death is sashaying around Manhattan mischievously, weaving in and out of doorways and corridors and swiftly passing by unsuspecting onlookers; only slowing to a somber jaunt as she passes frenetic fire trucks and police cars as their sirens throw red shadows all over her—-well it is in sync with the themes of the album.

Sapokanikan is such a powerful contender for the best song of the decade. Where else do you see Ozymandian used as an adjective? I visited Washington Square on a trip to New York one time and thought nothing of it since it seems like a normal park after all. Analyzing this song and reading about the history behind the place and discovering that it was originally a burial ground where 20,000 bodies still lie under the park was a surreal and hard-hitting moment for me. It proves Joanna's point about time erasing everything.

i love joanna newsom (1/∞)

one of my dearest memories is sitting on the floor with my best friends and introducing them to joanna newsom’s music by playing an emily lyric video and occasionally turning to them and explaining the significance of the song and jo’s unconditional love for her sister and the entire twelve minutes was just so calm and healing.

honestly? if you love somebody, play them your favorite song of all time.