Music

Joanna Newsom • Have One On Me 0

Have One On Me
Joanna Newsom
124 min • Drag City • March 1st, 2010
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Music, as the Princess of Darkness once observed, makes the people come together. It also divides people. Joanna Newsom is a performer whose music draws that proverbial line in the sand. In writing about Newsom critics are wont to use the word “polarizing”. One of the reasons for this is that she is decidedly not commercial. Have One On Me is her third studio album, and the eighteen tracks, which clock in at a gargantuan one hundred and twenty-four minutes, defy simple classification. The songs are in effect short stories and are consequently rather longer than usual for the medium. The composition is shaped around the rhythm of the stories, which do not settle into the groove, progress toward a bridge … etc. Have One On Me is unique, unusual and remarkably beautiful.

Categories: Music

Tagged: baby birch, daniel j levitin, good intentions paving company, have one on me, in california, joanna newsom, joni mitchell, psych folk, this is your brain on music, ys

Published:: March 30, 2010 – 11:59
Author:: By Christopher Bryant

The Movie Songbook • Sharleen Spiteri 1

The Movie Songbook
Sharleen Spiteri
42:54 min • Island • March 1st, 2010
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Fresh from her first solo endeavour, the cruelly underrated Melody, Sharleen Spiteri has ventured from Texas to Hollywood for her sophomore album, The Movie Songbook. Essentially conceived out of a low-key invitation to sing The Bee Gees’ ‘If I Can’t Have You’ at a Saturday Night Fever tribute concert, this project saw Spiteri record the album in a mere 8 days at the legendary Capitol Records Studios in Los Angeles, under the production of the iconic Phil Malone, whose CV boasts Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and Barbara Streisand. The self-confessed film aficionado has created a tribute album that reinterprets not only some huge cinematic songs, but also a smattering of understated movie gems.

Categories: Music