plumtreeblossom (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
plumtreeblossom) wrote2009-11-16 02:07 pm
plumtreeblossom) wrote2009-11-16 02:07 pm
Possibly The Awesomest Terrible Singer In The World
I stumbled across Joanna Newsom completely at random while reading the Wikipedia page of her boyfriend (actor Andy Samberg). At first listen I was both bewildered and riveted at the same time. I didn't want to keep listening but couldn't stop listening because there's something akin to magic about the bizarre music she makes. Honestly, her voice sounds like Bjork's irritable Siamese cat with an epic sinus infection. But juxtaposed against her gorgeous harp playing and her rich, quirky lyrics, it folds together into something that defies... pretty much everything.
There's something inspiring about an artist who can take every contemporary convention we have about what constitutes "good" singing and chuck them right out the window. Lots of composers with mediocre or poor singing voices collaborate with better voiced singers to bring their songs to life. But sometimes, someone wants to sing their own song regardless of what their voice sounds like, and if they have the right combination of confidence, stage presence and thick skin, they can do it, damn the torpedoes. Whether liked or disliked, the voice of this elven bardette certainly draws strong emotional reactions. If you click through to the comment thread on Youtube, there is passionate fighting between those who think her vocal cords should be slit and those who look up to her as a hero.
Anyway, listen if you can handle it, respect if you're inspired to.
There's something inspiring about an artist who can take every contemporary convention we have about what constitutes "good" singing and chuck them right out the window. Lots of composers with mediocre or poor singing voices collaborate with better voiced singers to bring their songs to life. But sometimes, someone wants to sing their own song regardless of what their voice sounds like, and if they have the right combination of confidence, stage presence and thick skin, they can do it, damn the torpedoes. Whether liked or disliked, the voice of this elven bardette certainly draws strong emotional reactions. If you click through to the comment thread on Youtube, there is passionate fighting between those who think her vocal cords should be slit and those who look up to her as a hero.
Anyway, listen if you can handle it, respect if you're inspired to.
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I hated it at first, but she sort of grew on me as it played on. to me she doesn't sound at all like Bjork, but I like Bjork. Her voice is odd, admittedly, but she has resonance and the ability to hit notes. A lot of Bjork's weirdness stems (I think) from a heavy accent and extremely unusual phrasing.
With this woman, I get the sense she isn't trying to sound good. To sing, at least in the way we think of it. Playing a harp doesn't make singing all that easy, either (forces a bad closed posture.) There's something very stylized here.
And this might get me banned, but she reminded me a bit of Billie Holiday - something in the way she approached notes and her phrasing.
no subject
no subject
If I were a music reviewer, I would have a really hard time with this one and trying to describe/define her. On the one hand, her voice is essentially hideous, but that's not at all the same thing as "sucking." She doesn't suck, she just sounds so different that she needs to be judged by a whole 'nother set of measures than we would use for singers with more normal voices.
Anyway, good on her, I say. She probably takes a lot of shit for getting up there and doing her thing.