The Unique Voices Club #3: Joanna Newsom

Every Friday, I write a post about unique singing voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on Joanna Newsom.

There's a whole subreddit to discuss and appreciate the music of Joanna Newsom (mostly her lyrics). Someone even posted that it belongs in the soundtrack of the movie Poor Things. And someone I follow on Instagram used her song in a reel, which surprised me because I had no idea any of her four albums were even on social media music. And I also didn't know anyone else born in my decade would know who she is. Because she's indie folk, with most of her song uses on Instagram being in the low to mid hundred count. In fact, she's so indie that her stuff isn't even on Spotify.

Stole this picture off of Wikipedia. You're welcome.

The daughter of progressive doctors who didn't allow her to watch TV or listen to the radio, Joanna attended a Waldorf school where she learned theatre and poetry, urging her parents to sign her up for harp lessons when she was five. It definitely makes sense since her dad played guitar and her mom played the piano, dulcimer, autoharp and conga drums. She didn't get a full-sized harp until she was in the seventh grade though. Which is how she's categorized as progressive folk, chamber folk, indie folk, baroque pop, and freak folk, with some elements of Appalachian folk and Ernest Hemingway-inspired lyrics.

On to her vocal style: hers has been described as one of the most unique voices of the 21st century. She's a light, unrestrained, ethereal soprano, full of squeaks and cracks that are described understably but also stupidly by music critics as "childlike," as if only children are capable of such unbridled expression before self-consciousness and the rules of society stomps it out. High-pitched as a result of vocal nodules, her voice basically decides where it goes over her emotive lyrics and elegant harp-playing. In order for you to figure out what I mean, I've attached a YouTube video of "Peach, Plum, Pear," from her album The Milk-Eyed Mender below.

Listening to this song again while writing this reminds me of Sussie's song "I Am Free" from The Amazing World of Gumball (my next post apart from the Unique Voices Club just might be about her). Just like my dad threw off his headphones when I played The Shaggs on the college radio iteration of The Unique Voices Club, I figure he might do the same when I share Joanna Newsom's music. Because like some folk artists, she's not for everyone (some people even hate Adele??!!), with her unconventional voice and lyrics inspired by poems, folklore, paintings and politics that will force you to think. But according to Liz Pelly's article on NPR, "Newsom's musical language exists in opposition to the type of music that is served well by the streaming landscape: a space that favors music that's poppy or otherwise chill, that gets to a hook within 30 seconds, or that can flow easily into another artist on a playlist." Besides her personally being against Spotify, this explains why she's so hard to box in. It also explains why she and I should be friends. Unconventional artists unite. (Also gonna casually slip in my pages here if you want to collaborate with me some time😊.)

I'm gonna paste the YouTube catalog of Joanna's music here. And happy listening. Hopefully you'll be inspired to break out of the norms of what art is supposed to be and live in unbridled creativity.

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Stay educated,

Alexia