#2 Joanna Newsom - Emily

Album: Ys (2006)

Lyrics excerpt:
And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember

That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

Link to Amazon preview:
Emily

Reasons to love this song:
As it was for many other fans, Joanna Newsom's voice was an acquired taste for me. When I first heard her -- especially the songs from her first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender -- I thought she sounded like a cartoon character. But I heard people praise her second album, Ys, and mention that she was a great lyricist. I decided to give her a try and I read the lyrics for the five songs on Ys.
It didn't take long. Emily, the first song, was the turning point. The lyrics were touching and fascinating, and with all the references to nature and stars they seemed as if they had been written... not exactly in the past, but in a place beyond space and time. I listened to the song again, and this time her voice sounded lovely: still unusual, but lovely, the only voice I could imagine singing those lyrics. With her harp and with word combinations like hydrocephalitic listlessness, she seemed like a bard from another dimension.

YouTube link:
Joanna Newsom performing Emily in the First Unitarian Church Sanctuary in Philadelphia on November 16th, 2006
Part One

Part Two