Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me

Talking about my favorite artists has always been quite a dilemma: whatever I try to say or write ends up becoming a stew of pompous nonsense and absurdity. I believe I've tested this in thousands of lines written and then erased out of embarrassment. On one hand, it seems stupid to present something I deeply love as if I were selling a treadmill on Media Shopping; on the other hand, it seems equally pointless to discuss it in a way that's overflowing and melodramatic, considering that in a review one must maintain a minimum level of transparency. The problem always lies in that damn "happy medium" which I can never achieve, and despite this, with all the necessary (and useless) premises and fully aware of this idiotic problem, here I am on the verge of doing something equally idiotic: I'm tackling what is probably the most difficult album by my future wife, none other than Joanna Newsom.

While trying to buy time, the first question that arises spontaneously is: why should "Have One On Me" be considered her most "difficult" album? The answer is simple: because it has to inevitably compete with "Ys"; and for someone like me who considers "Ys" the most beautiful thing I've ever heard (I swear I'm not joking), this could represent quite a conundrum. For an artist, replicating a masterpiece like that is first of all redundant and risky, as it could easily fall into sheer mannerism, besides self-celebration; and it would still be humanly impossible. Thus arises the first inevitable (and obvious) obstacle/goal that an artist must face sooner or later: change. And luckily, in "Have One On Me," there are plenty of changes.

The Joanna of "Have One On Me" is no longer the whimsical child of "The Milk-Eyed Mender," and even the incredible suites of "Ys," with their frantic tempo and chatter, seem a distant memory. Yet, it can't be said that the American sprite has lost her great eagerness to create, on the contrary: "Have One On Me" presents itself with an overwhelming amount of content in its immense 124 minutes spread across three discs, and in light of all this, we can affirm that we are witnessing her most ambitious work, both in form and content. From such a work, which in itself gathers multiple influences, patterns, and atmospheres, Joanna could not emerge unchanged. So if her first album corresponded to youth, with its freshness and spontaneity, and "Ys" to a consolidation of her (immense) talents, "Have One On Me" is the step (but given the proportions of the work, I'd also say a dozen steps) toward and perhaps beyond maturity.

The carefree vein of the beginnings has vanished; out of play are the sublime atmospheres (and believe me, there is no better adjective to describe them) of "Ys"; this is compounded by the evident change in tone of Newsom's much-loved/hated (but always unmistakable) voice, likely due to the vocal cord nodules she had a couple of years ago: coincidence or not, her "new" voice, now much softer and more calibrated than before (in this respect some detractors might change their mind), perfectly matches the new features of her art.

The musical attire of "Have One On Me" is lavish, extravagant, very refined; to the point that it is quite difficult to immediately frame, perhaps leaving nothing in the first listens and even resulting in inconsistency. But meticulousness isn't cheap, and details never come without effort: it takes time, and time itself seems to be the main issue with this vast album. And I emphasize, seems...

First of all, we are not dealing with an album of rigorous conceptual cohesion, and that alone would suffice to justify a fragmented, scattered, transient listening if we want. Each piece stands alone, and there is no need to follow a certain order in the tracks, nor is it necessary to inject the entire album intravenously. We can leisurely enjoy one disc at a time; we can halve the tracklist and listen to it in two parts; we can jump from one song to another, from one disc to another without losing a thread of discourse that, in fact, doesn’t exist. In conclusion: is the album's length its weakness? No; rather, its extreme versatility is its strength. "Have One On Me" can be wielded in a thousand ways, as vast as it is; and its greatness makes it always more diverse, ever new with each passing listen.

As for the strictly musical content, there is plenty to explore: Newsom's style is more eclectic than ever and comfortably sits between refined chamber music, elegant and intimate singer-songwriter, free-spirited folk, avant-garde, always a bit extravagant, occasionally throwing a bit of country, a bit of blues, or even catapulting into the Far East. So it's not surprising that Joanna again availed herself of the most varied accompaniments, from drums to strings, from winds to plucking, with the only difference that, while in "Ys" mostly the strings traced often unpredictable melodies detached from the song’s structure, now such arrangements are integral to the song and appear with discretion, never invading the scene, thus adapting to the thoughtful and melancholic mood that permeates almost the entire album. Naturally, the undisputed protagonists of the whole project remain (needless to say) Joanna, her harp, and occasionally her piano.

The uncontainable verve that animated the music and lyrics of "Ys" may be gone, but Joanna has not lost an ounce of her formal and lyrical sophistication: the lyrics still boast a highly sophisticated language (albeit much less symbolic than "Ys") and at the same time ironic/lighthearted, never ever repetitive, and the melodies, perfectly paired with the rhythmic verses, overflow with the endless poems/stories that the little great Joanna is now accustomed to serve to us tirelessly. A double miracle, considering that such levels are consistently maintained for the modest duration of over two hours!

"Have One On Me" is a free album: we can find little tracks of two or three minutes as well as giants of eight, nine, or eleven minutes. In them, the substance is treated with great interpretative freedom, ranging from the simple song form for solo harp ("’81," "Jackrabbits"), to long suites out of time that gently unfold into touching, intense climaxes ("Autumn," "In California"), to feasts of plucking with exquisite instrumental tails ("Go Long"), to brilliant ballads with a country aftertaste ("Good Intentions Paving Company") or fragile blues for piano ("Does Not Suffice"). And in tracks like "Esme," "Kingfisher," and especially the title-track, one can expect anything and more, because our hardworking singer-songwriter decides to liberate herself from any kind of schema, laugh in the face of so-called tradition, and do her own thing: the first is a powerful harp ballad with fresh and almost impromptu melodies; "Kingfisher" feels ancient and legendary; "Have One On Me" makes its eleven minutes fly by so fast, it's so changing and unpredictable.

So far I've only mentioned the first ones that came to mind, which doesn't mean they're the best or the most important: in reality, there isn't a single track that stands out above the others, as impossible as it may seem in an album that includes eighteen tracks. Instead, I could admit that a couple of episodes on the second disc don’t engage me much (the first two), but when in an album of this caliber the strengths obliterate the flaws, we can certainly afford a hearty and sincere "whatever."

In short, "Have One On Me" is so colorful and rich in detail (and I must emphasize how these are not easily revealed in the first listens) that it is practically impossible to write a track-by-track, minute-by-minute, verse-by-verse report. Joanna manages the themes of each song with an unusual ingenuity, abandoning them, picking them up again later, changing them, turning them upside down... Even I, who have listened to this multi-disc album to the point of exhaustion, have not yet been able to satisfy myself with its boundless creativity, much less grasp it entirely.

Perhaps a prerogative of the greatest masterpieces: so much effort at the start, but so many satisfactions in the end.

It's true, I wanted another "Ys," because that is and will remain my greatest musical love of all time.

But "Have One On Me" has already become my secret lover. Don’t tell anyone though, especially "Ys"... Cross my heart?