Joanna Newsom

Since 2002 · United States

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Ys (2006)

Ys consists of just five songs, several running past ten minutes, each a dense, orchestrated journey arranged by Van Dyke Parks around Newsom's harp and increasingly assured voice. "Emily," written for and about her sister, moves through years of memory and astronomy within a single unbroken structure, never settling into anything as simple as a chorus. "Monkey & Bear" tells something closer to a fable, sung with a directness that cuts through the record's formal complexity. It remains one of the most ambitious folk albums of its decade, built on a scale almost no one else was attempting.

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Joanna Newsom

Ys · 2006

Joanna Newsom trained as a classical harpist before releasing The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), a debut that paired that unusual instrument with a high, unconventional singing voice and dense, unusual lyrics that drew as much from English literature as from any folk tradition. Her music was immediately polarizing — critics and listeners split sharply on her voice in particular — but the ambition and specificity of her songwriting won her a devoted following quickly.

Ys (2006), five extended songs orchestrated by Van Dyke Parks, pushed further into long-form composition than almost any other artist of her generation attempted, and it established her as one of the central figures of the mid-2000s freak-folk movement. Later albums, including the triple-length Have One on Me (2010), continued to expand her range without abandoning the harp-based core of her sound.