So where to begin, where to begin... just to talk about this massive work is difficult for me to approach. Because it IS massive, and quite long (over 2 hours), so listening to this thing all the way through, multiple times, was no easy challenge. I first downloaded it to my iPod and just played it on shuffle, which is stupid, lemme tell you, because you really should listen to the songs in order.
Starting with Easy <3
The album begins with a soft bang, as Joanna quietly coos "Easy, easy/ My man and me," and goes on from there with a calculated rhythm and melody, while the song swiftly and steadily grows. My very first thought was something along the lines of "Holy vocal chords!" because if you know anything about Joanna, you know that she has a wild, warbly, untamed voice. But here, it is so smooth and stunning, in the best of ways. I mean, not even was I halfway through the opening song when I deduced that Joanna has grown and matured incredibly since the last album.
Up next is the exceptionally complex title track. And it is a stunner.
The song starts out beautifully and quickly livens up ("Here's Lola, tada! to do her famous spider dance for you") and lacks no quirky lyrics. While the song is so adorable that you just want to hug it, it's also so complex that you're a little intimidated. Seriously, to achieve what Joanna's achieved with only 2 songs blows my mind. And there are 16 to go, most over 6 minutes long... Most of the other songs, also, are layered with instrument upon instrument, textured with backing vocals, filled with wild percussion, and obscured with clever lyrics.
Take Baby Birch, for instance.
Possibly the most personal song on the album, with somber lyrics that point to losing a child, either literally, metaphorically, or just in a futuristic sense ("This is the song for baby birch, oh I will never know you, and at the back of what we've done, there is this knowledge of you," and "I wish I could take every path, cause you know I hated to close that doggone door on you.") I've read more than a few reviews that are sure the song is about abortion, and this is further evidenced by On A Good Day, which follows. The lyrics certainly don't rule this theory out, especially when you regard the very end of the song where she talks about catching a rabbit and skinning it quick, or laughing at a mother goose for thinking she wants a "little baby fussing all over my legs." So when I listen to this song, sometimes I follow that story line. Other times, I just believe the song to be a line of stirring metaphors that address loss in general. Either way, the song is so brooding and melancholy, so beautiful, and so easy to get lost in. And I could listen to the line, "Do you remember staring, up at the stars, so far away in their bulletproof cars?" over and over and over again until the song wore thin.
Anybody who's feeling ambitious enough to take this gargantuan listen on really needs to be in the right mood. This album is LONG, and quite testing, because Joanna, clever girl that she is, has intertwined all the songs into a complex and purposeful line. On the first few listens, certain songs really stood out for me (the ones I've listed, the shorter songs "On A Good Day" and "'81," "Good Intentions Paving Company," and "Soft as Chalk"). Others blended together. It probably took me 4 or 5 listens through for me to make the connection between "In California" and "Does Not Suffice": both songs follow the same melodic line and coincide with each other astonishingly. Listening can just become plain overwhelming, too, because you want to take everything in all at once, which is just impossible. But the effort is more than worth it. The songs are beautiful, the album is gorgeous, the musicianship is incredible.
And I'm going to keep telling myself that, because I shelled out 30 bucks to pick up the vinyl edition at my local record store.*
*I do not regret this, though-- the setup of the record is kickass.
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