Transitory Rage: Under Joanna’s Spell

Brendan Principato

It‰’s that time of year again. The approaching comfort of spring teases and hints at winter‰’s cold. Each night, the sun sets a bit later and each day, the world seems a bit brighter, greener and more welcoming.

Hyperbolic fairy tale introduction? Yep. Fitting? Still yep. That‰’s because this week‰’s Transitory Rage is all about the angelic and majestic Joanna Newsom. Around this time every year, I get sucked back into her music. If you haven’t heard of Joanna, she‰’s a brilliant harp player and singer with a flawless discography. Her latest album, Have One On Me, is an epic triple LP that runs longer than two hours from tip to tail without faltering once. Newsom‰’s songwriting could simultaneously be considered storytelling, often weaving musical tales that are 10, 12, even 17 minutes long!

Don‰’t think that this means she sacrifices quality at all. Joanna keeps every second interesting, moving from one section to another with engaging musical flourishes and gripping stories. Her lyricism captures an aura of an era lost centuries ago and revives it with beauty and grace. Her voice soars through the infinite drone of bland, vanilla female voices plaguing modern music (sorry ladies) and flies with dead-set precision into my core via my eardrums. Soft, electric, pristine and cutting, Joanna‰’s voice poignantly flutters like a regal swan from delicate and swooning to explosive crooning in the blink of an eye. Her instrumentation (often composed of harp, piano, horns, strings and woodwinds) defies common chord progressions, jumping from key to key without bounds as Newsom fluently blends music and the English language with complete mastery of both. Newsom‰’s music evokes a certain serenity and happiness within me that feels out of this world.

After going back this week and re-listening to all of her releases multiple times, certain songs have jumped out at me that I overlooked in years past. The three-song powerhouse: “Go Long,‰” “Occident,‰” and “Soft as Chalk‰” on her latest record has proven to be particularly good at blowing my mind and leaving me awestruck after every single listen without fail. Her organic vocals, commanding piano skills and immaculate harp playing are forces to be reckoned with. The imminent shift between winter and spring is the perfect time to listen to Joanna and warm up with the weather to her beautiful albums. I can only hope that her few live appearances last year and the two new tracks she played on those exclusive dates will evolve into a new album and tour this summer. Hearing her songs on a record or through headphones is one thing, but seeing and hearing her live becomes a religious experience.

I could go on for hours praising Joanna‰’s perfection but that‰’s just wasting the time you could spend listening to her music. My personal favorites of hers are: “Emily‰” (the Magnum Opus of modern songwriting), “On a Good Day‰” (love-lost anguish summed up in under two minutes) and “This Side of The Blue‰” (the slide guitar will SLAY YOU). Go forth and enjoy the product of a true genius! (Also, she‰’s hot.)