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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Ys

Universal acclaim
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 274 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Drag City
Release Date: 14 November 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Folk
Summary
Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke and Van Dyke Parks lend a hand on this five-song full-length from the folk singer-songwriter.
Also On The Web: JN @ Drag City JN @ MySpace
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Drowned In Sound
It’s a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Ys is one of those rare sophomore albums that shatters exceedingly high expectations.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
Ys is an exceptional piece of art in the broadest sense - give it the chance to grow on you.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
It may well be the most off-putting album released this year. After playing it, there seems every chance it is the also the most astonishing.
Read Full Review >Uncut
For the 56 minutes that "Ys" lasts, all the doubts evaporate. Every elaboration has a purpose, every labyrinthine melodic detour feels necessary rather than contrived. Tempting as it is to fixate on the gilded reputations of her associates, this is unequivocally Newsom’s album.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
For my money, Newsom has demonstrated more nuance, depth of feeling, and originality than a hundred bedazzling pop divas.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
The people who hear this record will split into two crowds: The ones who think it's silly and precious, and the ones who, once they hear it, won't be able to live without it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
For those willing to let go a little and drift, Ys can be an amazing journey, especially when Parks' strings and Newsom's harp lock into a seductive dance, or when her voice catches one of the fleeting snatches of melody and rides it until it escapes.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
While Ys is ridiculously overwritten, over-performed and self-contained, her fables always sublimate into the hot fog of real emotions just before they calcify.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
The full orchestra doesn’t smack of overproduced grandiosity, which is a nice surprise. Less surprising, of course, is the album's incredible lyrical density. [#15]
All Music Guide
Yes, Ys is a demanding listen, but it's also a rewarding and inspiring one.
Read Full Review >Spin
Throughout the album, Newsom's language is more colorful than on Mender; at its best, it works as music even on the page. [Dec 2006, p.95]
Lost At Sea
Listening to Ys is like dreaming with eyes open, a detached lucidity in which clarity inevitably follows.
Read Full Review >Mojo
It is Newsom's voice that provides the stunning balm to bind this strange beauty together. [Dec 2006, p.118]
Urb
She surpasses the level of comparatively hook-heavy songwriting set with The Milk-Eyed Mender by evoking a dramatic weight people will still be talking about years down the line. [Nov 2006, p.137]
Prefix Magazine
From the lavish orchestration courtesy of Van Dyke Parks to the richness and sheer abundance of language at Newsom's disposal, Ys is a supreme achievement.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
The narrative plot of each song retains the best features of Newsom's previous work, and is gloriously wordy. Here might be the album's one weakness, since it's simply hard to understand a line like "Scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus?" when it's set to rhythm, to say nothing of back-and-forth dialogue.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
There is still something unsettlingly Renaissance fair-meets-Wind in the Willows about her music, yet something lovely lives there as well. [24 Nov 2006, p.109]
cokemachineglow
If you give it a chance (or maybe even a dozen chances, if you can stand it), and don't immediately dismiss it because it's by Joanna, I’m sure you’ll find something to love.
Read Full Review >BBC collective
It’s to her great credit that Newsom (literally) plucks artistic triumph from the jaws of cloying whimsy.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
No album will ever move you quite like it, and if it weren't for a slight misstep, it would be perfect in almost every way.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Newsom has managed to lessen the twee factor of her last record... in the process crafting an album as bewitching as it is odd.
Read Full Review >Blender
The emotional peaks are so sharp, the wordplay so juicy, that all excesses are redeemed.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
The beating heart of Newsom's tales, at turns whimsical and melancholic, enchant with a simple calculus: A woman, a harp and a story to tell. [Dec 2006, p.190]
Dot Music
In a bid to make a startling epic work, she's concentrated on the form and neglected the content.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Utterly entrancing. [Dec 2006, p.141]
Magnet
While it is technically flawless and masterfully executed, it makes for awkward listening. [#74, p.102]
MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
So much that is sprightly about the debut is subsumed here by ambition, to be kind, and privilege, to be brutally accurate. [Feb/Mar 2007]
Rolling Stone
Hard to stomach. [19 Oct 2006, p.134]
NOW Magazine
Unfortunately, the grand concept appears to have been a bit too ambitious for the 24-year-old Newsom and her associates to pull off, since what she plucks and sings in her little-girl-lost warble never seems entirely integrated with the hovering orchestral parts that sound like bleed-over from a symphony rehearsal in the room next door.
Read Full Review >Trouser Press
It's like being stuck in the seat next to a chatty, batshit backwoods pixie for an 18-hour plane ride.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 274 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Christian D. gave it a10:
I have currently been examening monkey and bear, I get chills just reading a few lines. this is classical masterpieces with brilliant poetry that seeps into your head and cuddles you in a blanket of ease. if green day is more of your music I would not suggest listening to this as it might put you in a comma.
David M. gave it a3:
I'll never understand why these sprawling idiosyncratic croonings constitute a great work--and that's coming from a fan of Tori Amos and Kate Bush!!
Michele F. gave it a10:
Incredibly original, wonderful poetry in song.
Thomas G. gave it a10:
It's absolutely beautiful. Her lyrics are spot on, and the music is wonderful. Just because it's different doesn't make it pretentious. She's got her own unique style that shows alot of passion.
cmiiiii cmi gave it a10:
It makes me smile.
pix101 1 gave it a0:
I just can't get through this album... I've managed to listen to half of each of the tracks, but just don't get it! It's rough stuff!!! Maybe I should start listening to the Top 40 charts or something 'cos I just don't get some of the stuff getting all this hype these days!?
Darnee Q gave it a10:
Unique in many ways, and I'm not just trying to be "arty" or "cultured" here. Joanna builds a theatre of sound with her vox and harp as well as any. All of these complex themes may be too much for many in this day and age; read uncultured America. Anyone with an appreciation and love of the ART of music will appreciate this. To those of you who don't get it, well there are plenty of albums out there for you too. Mariah, Celine, Brittny, Avril, etc. Have fun.
