News: Vinyl: Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

As far as idiosyncratic instrument choices go, a Celtic Harp three times your own size is a tough one to top.

But Joanna Newsom is nothing if not ambitious. On her latest triple LP, Have One On Me, she manages to dwarf her harp with the enormity of her voice, an instrument the singer seems to have discovered is capable of new altitudes of expressivity.

On The Milk-Eyed Mender, Newsom’s untrained and unmistakable yowl was probably unbearable to 85 per cent of listeners, but it inspired fevered devotion among the rest of us, particularly in the band of weirdos lucky enough to witness her astounding live act.

While touring Ys, Newsom’s unapologetically demanding but equally rewarding sophomore album, she seemed to be figuring out how to drop in and out of her signature squeak at will.

Now, Newsom can deploy her voice with surgical exactitude. Have One On Me fits that voice at its very centre, with its breathily recorded poetry the record’s guiding force.

Ryan Francesconi, who forms part of Newsom’s small touring ensemble, took responsibility for arranging orchestral compositions with a rare sensitivity. Strings flush and recede without warning, punctuating Newsom’s adept manipulations of meter and rhyme.

Production values on Have One On Me are nothing if not professional: studio celebrity Jim O’Rourke gets credit of six tracks and Noah Gorgeson capably handles the rest. Newsom’s voice is injected with a little air, set further back in the mix; her harp is cleanly transferred and strings are rich and full.

There’s a welcome variety in Francesconi arrangements, preferring to complement Newsom’s complicated lyrical lines rather than following them turn for turn. Have One On Me is all the better for being occasionally spare; it eschews the baroque trappings of Ys’s orchestration for something able to integrate horns, strings and, shockingly, an electric guitar.

Newsom is also deft at rapidly shifting gear without warning, which for all the talk of ’70s folk influences and medieval allusions, makes tracks like ‘Baby Birch’ and ‘Soft as Chalk’ sound more like Deerhoof with harps.
In any case, it feels a little silly to talk about influences when discussing Newsom’s music; Have One On Me seems to be subject only to its own internal logic. It might be pleased to borrow widely, but it’s an album that’s little like anything else.

And yes, it’s long – but not as long as all that. Set over three double-sides, Have One on Me actually runs at about two hours (which makes the triple-disc CD version more of a strategy to enforce listeners to take their time rather than cram more tracks in).

More importantly, Have One on Me is accessible. It’s no pop record by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s easier to compartmentalise than the sheer edifice of Ys, on which nothing ran under 10 minutes and songs stretched out as long as 20.

However, being an easy listen is hardly the only virtue of great music. Newsom’s startling lyrical insight and originality matched now with the technical virtuosity to pull the whole thing off make Have One on Me her best record to date.

Music: 5

Sound: 4