Las Vegas Weekly

[Folk]

Joanna Newsom

Have One on Me

Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom

Thought Joanna Newsom couldn’t out-sprawl her 2006 long-song opus, Ys? Ha! Newsom’s third album Have One on Me weighs in at 18 tracks (14 of ’em six-plus minutes), three discs and a hair over two hours. Daunting? You bet, but only if braved in one sitting, which I can’t recommend, having tried it several tries already.

What I do suggest: sifting through this material at your leisure, rearranging, deleting, playlist-creating. Somewhere among this sonic stockpile lurks the decade’s first great record, and while Ms. Newsom surely could have self-edited, I’m just fine solving the puzzle for myself. I’d be a lot less willing were Have One on Me a bloated affair like Ys. But swollen statistics to the contrary, Newsom’s newest actually goes down far smoother, to my ears. Leaving behind Van Dyke Parks’ over-epic orchestral prog-folk for a songwriter-y center closer to ’70s Joni Mitchell, Newsom’s piano- and harp-forward arrangements and ever-developing voice feel poppy and soulful, playful and urgent, primal and polished—often all in the same song.

The Details

Joanna Newsom

Where to begin? Homey leadoff number “Easy” is a must. The slow-developing title track really pays off. If there’s a sure-fire single in the bunch, the spellbinding “’81” has to be it. And “Good Intentions Paving Company” comes off like the work of a more mischievous Carole King. Wait, those are the first four cuts on Have One on Me … um, can my version be two hours long, too?