Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me Image
Metascore

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

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 179 Ratings

  • 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.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 35
  2. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. 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. 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]
  3. It’s unlikely that you’ll often listen to it in one bout, but whether beguiled one day by its exotic petals and blooms or the next by the less showy trees in the background, Have One On Me is an Elysian record that you’ll return to again and again.
  4. 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

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 30
  2. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. Lisa
    10
    Amazing. Just. Amazing.
  2. JS
    8
    A great album that could essentially be a lot shorter. I think in the end over saturation takes over. Nonetheless there some beautiful songs like '81, among others. Expand
  3. ArviG
    7
    It pains me to say it, but this album is not her best... actually, it's not even her second best. There's too many "little darlin's" and "a-rounds" and "a-ways", too much forced warbling when holding the note would suffice (and sound so much better), and, frankly, too many redundant lyrics. The album also suffers from a melodic sameness that persists even with repeated listens... I find myself singing lyrics from "In California" (the best song on the album) to the music of "Does Not Suffice". All that said, there's still some fine stuff here - the highlights along with "In California" for me are "Go Long" and "Esme". Expand
  4. BradP
    3
    Sprawling and unfocused, the songs are a blur of delicate sounds that don't appear to mean a damn thing.

See all 30 User Reviews

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