[4/5] Gather ye to the drawing room, children, and be bewitched by the best pop album of 1884. From the ornate Romantic packaging to the epic sweep of storytelling and performance, this is by far singer-songstress Joanna Newsom's most assured and mature statement of her career. Her prior "freak folk" forays only hinted at the levels of seemingly effortless complexity on display in Ys. The five expansive tracks luxuriate in well-cultivated orchestral flourishes-a brass signature here, a swirling miasma of violins there-courtesy of noted arranger and frequent Brian Wilson cohort Van Dyke Parks. Sonic wizards Steve Albini and Jim O'Rourke conjure hallucinatory washes of sound without sacrificing immediacy and intimacy, and the beating heart of Newsom's tales, at turns whimsical and melancholic, enchant with a simple calculus: A woman, a harp and a story to tell. (DRAG CITY) Erick Haight
 Official Website: http://www.dragcity.com
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