Divers
Joanna Newsom (Drag City, 2015)
In Grand Rapids, Michigan there is a record store that is, to borrow the language of my younger nieces, total record store goals. It’s one of those dream places with rows of perfectly procured music wrapped in plastic, all artist-centric and ready for music snob listening pleasure. Its proprietor, a 50-something aesthete named Herm, is the guy who makes it all possible. When Joanna Newsom’s groundbreaking album The Milk-Eyed Mender came out in 2004, my friends and I stood in rapt attention as Herm told us it was the only good and original music to come out that year.
I bought the album and settled in for a bit of reeducation. To say Newsom’s vocals are one-of-a-kind is an understatement. Describing her, it’s difficult to avoid references to quirky singer and ukelele player Tiny Tim. But where Tiny Tim does high-pitched silliness, Newsom does nuanced exploration of the highest timbres of vocal range.
Divers, Newsom’s latest album, is more refined and less precious than previous releases. Despite densely literary lyrics in songs like “Sapokanikan,” the album somehow avoids overcomplication. A Newsweek artist contributed a map of the geographies Newsom references—a fun sidebar, but not required for a full appreciation of the album.
Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson calls Newsom a “casual, insightful mystic,” and indeed her voice is both childlike and world weary at the same time. But songs like “You Will Not Take My Heart Alive” bring Newsom back down to the rest of us.
In Divers, Newsom at once pronounces her love for the world and renounces the power of those forces that threaten to pull us out of it. In “Time, As a Symptom,” the final song on the album, Newsom ends on an unfinished word, a promise, perhaps, not to let time finish her. It is a strong and powerful statement coming from a strong, powerful voice. As in 2004, Newsom is one of the most original voices out there.
This review appeared in the February 2016 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 81, No. 2, page 40).
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