For lovers of irony, I submit Joanna Newsom’s 2010 album, Have One On Me. The first song is called “Easy,” and Ms. Newsom sings the title, invitingly, a couple times. Those familiar with Ms. Newsom’s work would probably not use that word with regard to her music. Her 2006 album, Ys is a modern chamber …
Let’s remember this year as the year we learned to say “twenty-ten” instead of “two-thousand-ten,” because as awkward as this adjustment may have been, it is an adjustment that seems to have some meaning to it. Even though “twenty” is more in line with the “nineteen” that prefixed years of the previous century, the pronouncing …
It was cold out when Beach House’s Teen Dream was released (January 26, 2010), and the music seemed to fit the mood. I was impressed, but not blown away. I recognized it as a very good album, maybe even great, but it didn’t excite me or capture my imagination in quite the same way that, …