Ys (Joanna Newsom album)

Ys
Studio album by Joanna Newsom
Released	November 6, 2006
Recorded	December 2005, L.A. May–June 2006, L.A. (orchestra)
Genre	Chamber folk, progressive folk
Length	55:38
Label	Drag City
Producer	Joanna Newsom, Van Dyke Parks
Joanna Newsom chronology
The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) Ys (2006) Have One on Me (2010)

Ys (pronounced /ˈiːs/ EESS) is the second album by Joanna Newsom. It was released by Drag City on November 6, 2006. The album was produced by herself and Van Dyke Parks, recorded by Steve Albini, mixed by Jim O'Rourke, with accompanying orchestral arrangements by Van Dyke Parks. It features guest vocals from Joanna's then boyfriend Bill Callahan and from her sister, Emily Newsom. The vocals and harp were recorded at The Village Recording Studio, LA in December 2005 with the orchestration being recorded between May and June 2006 at the Entorage Studios in LA.Ys (Media notes). Joanna Newsom. USA: Drag City. 2006.

The album consists of 5 tracks with song durations ranging from 7 to 17 minutes that deal with events and people who had been important in Joanna's life in the year previous to recording. These events include the sudden death of Joanna's best friend, a continuing illness and a tumultuous relationship.^[1] The album was named after the mythical city of Ys, which according to myth was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean. The albums' title was the last element to be confirmed and was a result of a dream that Joanna had which featured the letters Y and S and a book recommended by a friend that contained reference to the myth.^[1]

Upon release Ys was met with widespread critical acclaim and was Joanna's first album to chart in the Billboard 200 where it peaked at No. 134, it also charted in the UK, France, Norway and Ireland. In recent years, the album has been featured on several music publications' lists of the greatest albums of the 2000s (decade) as well as all-time.

Production

The album features full orchestra arrangements by Van Dyke Parks on four of the five tracks. Parks also contributes accordion. Newsom's harp and vocals were recorded by Steve Albini and the orchestra was recorded by Tim Boyle. Newsom and Parks produced the album and it was mixed by Jim O'Rourke. The recording process was completely analog, on two 24-track tape recorders. The music was mixed to tape and mastered at Abbey Road Studios.^[2]

Bass guitar is contributed by Lee Sklar, and electric guitar by jazz guitarist Grant Geissman. Don Heffington played percussion and Matt Cartsonis played mandolin and banjo. Bill Callahan provides backing vocals on the song "Only Skin", while on "Emily" these are sung by Joanna's sister Emily Newsom, after whom the song is named.

The album, particularly the length of the songs and orchestral arrangements, was partially inspired by the 1971 Roy Harper album Stormcock.^[3] In September 2007, Harper supported Joanna Newsom at her Royal Albert Hall performance, playing Stormcock in its entirety. Newsom was also impressed by Van Dyke Parks' 1968 album Song Cycle, and asked him to collaborate on Ys after listening to that record.^[1]

On her fall 2007 tour, Newsom performed the album in its entirety, backed by a 29-piece orchestra.^[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[7]
The Guardian	[8]
MSN Music	C+[9]
NME	8/10[10]
Pitchfork Media	9.4/10[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
Slant Magazine	[13]
Spin	[14]
Uncut	[15]

Ys is Newsom's first album to chart on the U.S. music charts (it peaked at #134 on the Billboard 200) and it has sold more than 250,000 copies.^[16][17] The album entered the Irish Album Chart at #50, and was also nominated for a 2007 Shortlist Music Prize.^[18] The track "Emily" was ranked #9 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks 2006.

Since its release on November 14, 2006, Ys has received widespread critical acclaim, including a #1 ranking in Tiny Mix Tapes' Top 25 Albums of 2006,^[19] and CHARTbeat's Top 100 Albums of 2006 ^[20] a #3 ranking on Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2006,^[21] and a #7 ranking Time magazine's 10 Best Albums of 2006. It currently has a score of 85 out of 100, the 15th highest scoring album of 2006 on Metacritic. By the end of 2006 Ys appeared in more than 50 year-end lists, placing inside the top 10 in 35 of them.^[22] Despite a negative review by the US Rolling Stone,^[23] the German version of the magazine named the album the second greatest of the year.^[24] According to Acclaimedmusic.net Ys is the third best album of 2006,^[25] and the 27th greatest record released that decade^[26] and the 271st greatest of all-time.^[26] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2009, the album started to appear in many "best of the decade" lists. Pitchfork Media named Ys the 83rd greatest album of the 2000s. Calling Newsom "unlike anyone else" aside calling the album "the most artistically ambitious indie rock enterprise of the decade"^[27] Ys is one of two Joanna Newsom albums placed inside the top 100, the other being The Milk-Eyed Mender .^[28] UK magazine Uncut placed the album inside their "150 greatest album of the decade" list, at number 21. Gigwise named Ys the 32nd greatest album of the 2000s commenting that "the record rightly received blanket acclaim upon its initial release and is already sounding better with age. Whether she'll ever top this new-folk masterpiece remains to be seen."^[29] The Times placed the album at number 26 in their top 100 albums of the decade list,^[30] while The Guardian named it one of the '1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die'.^[31] British magazine Clash placed Ys at number 13 in their '50 Greatest Albums Of Our Lifetime' list.^[32] German magazine Musikexpress named Ys the 92nd greatest album of the last four decades (1969–2009).^[33] Two Spanish magazines, Playground and Rock de Lux, have respectively named Ys their 83rd and 15th greatest album of the 2000s.^[34][35] About placed Ys at number one inside their greatest album of the decade list.^[36] In 2010, Tiny Mix Tapes named the album the 18th greatest of the 2000s and Cokemachineglow.com the 81st.^[37][38] Rhapsody named it the 46th best album of the 2000s (decade).^[39]

Accolades and awards

End of Year #1 – Blow Up's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Drowned in Sound's Top Ten Albums of 2006[41] #1 – emusic's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Lost At Sea's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Plattentests's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Rock de Lux's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Sound Generator's Top Albums of 2006[40] #1 – Tiny Mix Tapes's Favorite Albums of 2006[42] #2 – B92 Net Radio's Top Albums of 2006[40] #2 – No Ripcord's Top Albums of 2006[40] #2 – Rockerilla's Top Albums of 2006[40] #2 – Rolling Stone Germany's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – Dagsavisen's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – Daily California's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – Mucchio Selvaggio's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – Ondarock's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2006[43] #3 – Screenagers's Top Albums of 2006[40] #3 – The Wire's Records of 2006[44] #3 – Rate Your Music's Top Albums of 2006[45] #4 – Dagbladet's Top Albums of 2006[40] #4 – Dusted Magazine's Favorite Albums of 2006[46]

#4 – HARP's Top Albums of 2006[40] #4 – Heaven's Top Albums of 2006[40] #4 – Les Choses's Top Albums of 2006[40] #4 – Spex's Top Albums of 2006[40] #4 – Stereogum's 2006 Gummy Awards[47] #4 – Uncut's Definitive Albums of 2006[48] #5 – Idolator's 2006 Jackin' Pop Critics Poll[49] #5 – Prefix Magazine's Top Albums of 2006[40] #6 – Spin's 40 Best Albums of 2006[50] #6 – The Village Voice's 2006 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll[51] #7 – Baltimore City Paper's Top Albums of 2006[40] #7 – BOOMKAT's Top Albums of 2006[40] #7 – Musikexpress's Top Albums of 2006[40] #7 – The Observer's Best Albums of 2006[52] #7 – Time's 10 Best Albums of 2006[53] #8 – The Austin Chronicle's 2006 in Albums[54] #8 – MusicOMH's Top Albums of 2006[40] #8 – PopMatters's Best Albums of 2006[55] #8 – Treble's Top Albums of 2006[40] #9 – Delusions of Adequacy's Top 10 Albums of 2006[56] #9 – Monitor's Top Albums of 2006[40]

#10 – Stylus Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2006[57] #12 – Cokemachineglow's Top Albums of 2006[40] #13 – Gaffa's Top Albums of 2006[40] #14 – Eye Weekly's Top Albums of 2006[40] #14 – Super 45's Top Albums of 2006[40] #15 – Playlouder's Top Albums of 2006[40] #16 – Hissing's Top Albums of 2006[40] #17 – Popnews's Top Albums of 2006[40] #17 – Refinery29's Top Albums of 2006[40] #20 – Mojo's Top Albums of 2006[40] #23 – Mondo Sonoro's Top Albums of 2006[40] #24 – Sonic's Top Albums of 2006[40] #24 – OOR's Top Albums of 2006[40] #25 – Les Inrockuptibles's Top Albums of 2006[40] No Order – Allmusic's Top Albums of 2006[40] No Order – BBC's Top Albums of 2006[40] No Order – Glide's Top Albums of 2006[40] No Order – Sentire Ascoltare's Top Albums of 2006[40] Nominee – Shortlist Prize's Top Albums of 2006[40]

End of Decade

• #1 – About.com's Top 100 Albums of the 2000s^[36]
• #15 – Rock de Lux's Top 100 Albums^[35]
• #18 – Tiny Mix Tapes's Favorite 100 Albums of 2000–2009^[37]
• #21 – Uncut's 150 Greatest Albums of the Decade^[58]
• #26 – The Times's 100 Best Albums of the Noughties^[30]
• #32 – Gigwise's 50 Greatest Albums of the 2000s^[29]
• #83 – Pitchfork Media's Top 200 Albums of the 2000s^[27]
• #83 – Playground's Top 200 Albums^[34]

Other

• #13 – Clash Magazine's 50 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime^[32]
• #92 – Musikexpress's The 100 Best Albums 1969–2009^[33]
• No Order – Hervé Bourhis's 555 Records^[40]
• Special Mention – The Guardian's 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die^[31]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Joanna Newsom. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Emily"	12:07
2.	"Monkey & Bear"	9:29
3.	"Sawdust & Diamonds"	9:54
4.	"Only Skin"	16:53
5.	"Cosmia"	7:15
Total length:		55:38

Personnel

Performance

• Bill Callahan – vocal harmonies
• Matt Cartsonis – banjo, mandolin
• Grant Geissman – electric guitar
• Don Heffington – percussion
• Emily Newsom – vocal harmonies
• Joanna Newsom – harp, leader, vocals, pedal harp
• Van Dyke Parks – accordion
• Lee Sklar – electric bass

Orchestra

Briana Bandy – viola Caroline Buckman – viola Giovna Clayton – cello Patricia Cloud – flute Peter Doubrovsky – bass Jeff Driskill – clarinet Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick – cello Karen Elaine – viola Phillip Fethar – oboe Susan Greenberg – flute

Sharon Jackson – violin Peter Kent – violin, concertmaster Gina Kronstadt – violin Miriam Mayer – viola John D Mitchell – bassoon Peter Nevin – clarinet Robert O'Donnell, Jr. – trumpet Bart Samolis – bass Terrence Schonig – marimba, cymbalom Edmund Stein – violin

David Stenske – viola David R. Stone – bass Cameron Patrick – violin Vladimir Polimatidi – violin Julie Rogers – violin Marda Todd – viola Jessica Van Velzen – viola John Wittenberg – violin Shari Zippert – violin

Production

• Steve Albini – engineer
• Tim Boyle – engineer
• TJ Doherty – mixing assistant
• Richard Good – design
• Joanna Newsom – producer
• Jim O'Rourke – mixing, mixing engineer
• Van Dyke Parks – producer, conductor, orchestral arrangements
• John Rosenberg – conductor
• William T. Stromberg – copy
• Benjamin A. Vierling – paintings
• Nick Webb – mastering

Charts

Chart (2006)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[59]	134
US Top Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[60]	1
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[61]	5
US Digital Albums (Billboard)[62]	10
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[63]	8
U.S. Billboard Comprehensive Albums	165
UK Albums (OCC)[64]	41
Irish Albums (IRMA)[65]	50
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[66]	29
French Albums (SNEP)[67]	168

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