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...

100

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.

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100

Dusted Magazine

Ys is one of those rare sophomore albums that shatters exceedingly high expectations.

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100

Observer Music Monthly

Ys is an exceptional piece of art in the broadest sense - give it the chance to grow on you.

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100

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.

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100

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.

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100

PopMatters

For my money, Newsom has demonstrated more nuance, depth of feeling, and originality than a hundred bedazzling pop divas.

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100

Slant Magazine

The album is a precious--in every sense of the word--masterpiece.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Almost Cool

A knockout of an album.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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BBC collective

It’s to her great credit that Newsom (literally) plucks artistic triumph from the jaws of cloying whimsy.

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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.

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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.

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Blender

The emotional peaks are so sharp, the wordplay so juicy, that all excesses are redeemed.

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Playlouder

She has issued a treasure. She has floored us again.

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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]

Amazon.com

An album that sounds unlike anything else.

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Dot Music

In a bid to make a startling epic work, she's concentrated on the form and neglected the content.

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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.

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Trouser Press

It's like being stuck in the seat next to a chatty, batshit backwoods pixie for an 18-hour plane ride.

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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.

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