JOANNA NEWSOM - Divers 2LP

Highly recommended.

On Divers, Newsom explores “the question of what’s available to us as part of the human experience that isn’t subject to the sovereignty of time”. Definitely a huge subject, but Joanna is not unaccustomed to tackling huge subjects.

Musically, Divers is Joanna’s greatest effort yet – her arrangements and production reach their peak on this album, with Newsom credited as a performer for 15 different instruments on the album - from her usual harp, piano and vocals, to instruments like the Minimoog and Mellotron to the guitaret and clavichord, and with even more people involved in performance of various other instruments, all the way from drums to the bouzouki and baglama.

Joanna is also not unaccustomed to grand sounding albums, with even more personnel and even more instruments on Ys and Have One On Me, however, the electronic and synth heavy feel of Divers is in such a huge contrast to her previous albums yet never strays too far away from her traditional folk sound.