Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band E.P.

I love Joanna Newsom madly. She and her music are quirky, oldworld, gorgeous. The Milk-Eyed Mender is easily my favourite 2004 album, and this new EP exceeds every promise made. (You know how apprehensive you get when your favourite artist does something new, especially with a new band in tow.) I feel so lucky to be one of the folk who 'got' Newsom's voice, or I'd have missed out on the first song of this album, 'Colleen'...


And these lyrics from the last, 'Cosmia':

...though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in

If you couldn't get over Newsom's toenail curling voice from her other stuff, I still think you'd like this EP. It's mellower, yet still distinctive, unusual, and beautiful.

I've also been listening to Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. Azparently this is the album Pink Floyd hate. I like it. Summer '68 is fast becoming my fave PF song, enough to make up for any other weirdness on 'Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast' and the title track. I know, I'm a pretty slack PF fan. Weirdness, that's what they do, right? But I like Summer '68 for its catchy piano and brass sections; I like 'Run Like Hell' (from The Wall) for its blatantly disco beats; I like 'Comfortably Numb' for its... well... I just like it, but it isn't weird.



Is it okay that I don't read books anymore? I'd much rather sit and listen to some good music than read a book (good or otherwise). Oh, well. I guess it'd only make me pseudo-intellectual if I started now.