There are many people worship at the altar of Joanna Newsom. These harpophiles say she’s “one of today’s greatest living artists” and that she’s “nothing less than brilliant.” They’ve lauded her latest album with hyperbole and praise her live show as some sort of second coming of an angel from heaven. They’ve even compared her lyrics to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, among others. As it turns out, I am also one of those people.
Joanna Newsom makes another late-night appearance, this time returning to Jimmy Kimmel Live after a six year absence and nearing six months after Have One On Me hit the shelves. Praising Newsom nowadays is like playing a long, delicate game of Jenga with tiny wooden superlatives, so I will choose my piece carefully and move on: check out Joanna trying to wrap her lips around the sheer beauty of her own lyrics with “You and Me, Bess” and “81”, below.
“You And Me, Bess”
“81”