profundis | Uh. Mazed.

Imagine if Bjork was not some kind of alien android and actually had a soul. Better yet imagine Sam Beam from Iron & Wine died and his spirit was reincarnated into Bjork's body. That person's music would sound a lot like Joanna Newsom's.

Her epic 17 minute "Only Skin" from her album "Ys" (pronounced "wise") is staggering - chaotic, sweet, poignant, intricate, poetic, tangential, sunny and haunting...all rolled together, just like life.

Samples of her lyrics:

"it was a dark dream, darlin', it's over
the firebreather is beneath the clover
beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever
a toothless hound-dog choking on a feather"

"I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain
Spiders' ghosts hang soaked and dangling
Silently from all the blooming cherry trees
In tiny nooses, safe from everyone"

"Last week our picture window produced a half-word
Heavy and hollow, hit by a brown bird
We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
And pant and labour over every intake

I said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace
Then thought I ought to take her to a higher place
Said: "dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you
And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view"

Then in my hot hand
She slumped her sick weight
We tramped through the poison oak
Heartbroke and inchoate"

<3

Oh, BTW don't bother with the YouTube live versions, they don't have the full orchestration or the sound quality the studio version does.