Joanna Newsom - Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band E.P.

When I heard about Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band, I immediately had to have it. Unfortunately, I live in Raleigh where the music scene is decent, but the selection at the record store is sometimes a little behind other places in the country. However, I was going to visit a friend in a much bigger town that next week, so I decided it could wait. It was well worth that wait.
This is a very solid follow up to such a monumental album as YS. It has three songs, one new and two old. The album starts off with the new song: "Colleen," a story about a woman with an at least questionable past who loses her memory after [nearly?] drowning and is reborn the virtuous "Colleen." But, she finds there is something missing and yearns for a life she knows nothing about. This song has touches of [of course] appalachia and also Irish/Celtic folk music. I can see how this song came out of the Ys sessions, but it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the album, so it seems appropriate for "Colleen" to be released in this format. This is followed by a beautiful version of Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie with backing vocals by dummer Neal Morgan. Both of these songs are great and stand on their own, but the reason you should spend $10 on this E.P. is the remix of Cosmia.
Ys was my favorite album of 2006. While, I do love every song, "Cosmia" was the weakest on the album. Perhaps after listening to every incredible minute [all seventeen of 'em] of "Only Skin," I didn't have the patience for "Cosmia." At times it felt just a little bit forced, like I had to listen to it in order to get to the end of the album(I have this weird, neurotic thing about listening to an album from start to finish.) As I said before, Ys was my favorite album of '06, so I can't knock it around too much. However, this new, reworked version -- when compared to the album release -- tarnishes, just a little bit, what I thought was and to some degree still is a perfect record. It is clearly a superior recording in comparison to the album version. First, Newsom replaces the orchestrations of [the great] Van Dyke Parks with a much simpler and more approachable arrangement, which includes the banjo, tambura, drums, and an eerily played musical saw that makes for a more organic and emotionally charged song that that builds to the kind of crescendos we saw in "Monkey and Bear" or "Only Skin." On Ys, "Cosmia" is the shortest song on the record at a little over seven minutes(that's an anthem for most artists!), but "the Band" extends it another six minutes in a jam that skillfully dissipates all of the tension built up in the first half of the song. It really is a riveting song that commands all of ones attention.
One thing I have noticed about Newsom is that her voice has definitely improved, especially on Ys and the Ys Street Band. It's not "cleaner" or more "beautiful," [I do think her voice is beautiful, by the way] it's that she has gained control. Remember that she is a classically trained harpist, and has a educational background in creative writing. So, obviously her musical arrangements and lyrics are going to be her strength; now that she she has control over this unique and extremely expressive voice, it has become an incredible tool with which she is able to make outstanding music.