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Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me Image
Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 163 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: The three-disc follow-up to 2006's "Ys" was a mystery as advance copies were not sent until a few weeks before the release date to circumvent any leaks of the songs.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. No Ripcord
    100
    Have One On Me is so enrapturing, so imaginative and so delicate, that it feels safe to say that in five or ten years time, you'll go back to it and discover brand new things--whether they be the meaning of a song you'd never fathomed before or a simple amuse-bouche of a beautifully constructed oboe phrase.
  2. Mojo
    100
    Have One on Me is a very mature work indeed, even its resonant, discursive themes are underpinned by Newsom's usual playfulness. [Apr 2010, p.90]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Sputnikmusic
    60
    It's clearly her best album, but it's also her most frustrating, because it really drives home her potential and hints at so much greatness without ever truly delivering it.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 28
  3. Negative: 1 out of 28
  1. Lisa
    10
    Amazing. Just. Amazing.
    • 4 of 4 users said yes
  2. aarondu
    5
    A great album is somewhere in here, although Newsom needs to do some editing to find it. While some songs deserve their drawn out running time--the heartfelt cowboy ballad Baby Birch and the truly interesting medieval-style madrigal Kingfisher--others feel bloated and stretched out for no reason whatsoever. Further frustrating this drawn-out quality is Newsom's new singing style, which involves stretching out every vowel to last a full two seconds, in a sometimes comedic imitation of mid-70's Joni Mitchell. 'In youuuuuuuuuuur arms....yoouuuuuuuuuur arms" she sings in No Provenance, by the end of which I'm wanting to run as far from those arms as I can manage. And considering that she'll be singing that song for another eight minutes, i'll probably get a good headstart. However the album (or albums) do see Newsom trying on some new musical duds, some of which work surprisingly well. The Peanuts-style jazz of Good Intentions Paving Company (is that the shortest name you could find? Can't you edit anything?) isn't half bad, and neither is the barroom drawl of "Soft as Chalk". But it's in these more accessibe, pop-oriented tracks that the length really becomes a problem. I'm very glad to let Newsom take me on a strange and delightful 11-minute journey in the title track, visiting Lola Montez and 19th century Spain and daddy long legs; this is territory that only Newsom could think up. But I'm not as keen on hearing seven solid minutes of Newsom's (a-hem) 'interesting' vibrato on Good Intentions, or the list of absolutely everything she has left in a lover's bedroom on the final track, Does Not Suffice. (Which is a reprise of In California, man, does Newsom love to just circle round and round.) This is a great collection of demos. Now edit out all the filler and I would be glad to have one on you. Just not three.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. BradP
    3
    Sprawling and unfocused, the songs are a blur of delicate sounds that don't appear to mean a damn thing.
    • 1 of 7 users said yes

See all 28 User Reviews

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