The Milk-Eyed Mender
by Joanna Newsom

A beautifully crafted debut album by Joanna Newsom that demonstrates so much potential and promise which makes me extremely excited to explore future releases. The harp is at the centre of this album with it softly guiding us from song to song with immense delicacy and beauty. The way she plays it is absolutely stunning and it elevates every track to the next level. This also makes it such a unique listen and quite a personal album which allows us to connect to her so easily and feel involved with the music. Lyrically, it is great as well with there being a lot to explore for us as she goes into the themes of love and heartbreak with the use of intelligent wordplay. The vocal might not be for everyone but to me it sounds beautiful and it adds an extra edge and punch to the delivery of her words. Overall, this is such an emotional and powerful record that is packed full of quality and musical brilliance which makes me extremely excited to revisit this album and discover more of her discography.

From TheDude85 07/15/2021 17:58 | #271641

An unusual debut for the Nevada born harpist/multi-instrumentalist. Not often does one hear "pop harp." This is a groundbreaking exploration of music and Newsom gives her audience plenty to appreciate through her music and lyrics.

Lately I've been making some baby steps towards Ys. Sadly, no luck with this one yet.

Joanna Newsom's debut album. The milk eyed mender, is a fascinating and quirky acoustic record, with some stunning songs. Newsom is obviously a huge talent, a Joni Mitchell for the millennium, and like Mitchell, Newsom is totally unique, she's both knowing and playful and innocent sounding all at the same time. Bridges and balloons, gets things of to a great start and the record switches from one superb moment to another. This side of the blue, sprout and the bean, and, the book of right on, are all excellent, but best track is closing cut, clam,crab,cockle,cowrie, it's absolutely beautiful. A brilliant album. I'm in love.

I'm completely blown away! Where has Joanna Newsom been hiding all my life!

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From MCOTho 07/10/2013 03:00 | #80868

Joanna Newsom is the best thing to happen to me since Bob Dylan.

From eclab 01/02/2013 01:02 | #59720

Getting used to her voice takes a lot of time, but when you do, it's well worth it. (Don't play her in front of your friends unless you want to cop a lot of grief...)

It's a toss up between this album and Kid A for my favorite album of the the 2000s. It's harder to explain why I love this one in particular--it's not as impressive in some ways as Ys, but I'm completely in love with every song on this album. Something about it is just magical.

From Jimmy Dread 12/19/2011 22:09 | #33321

There's far more comedy and joyful abandon with MEM than in her other two albums. But let that not detract from the fact that, whilst her vocals here are her rawest, the songs are just as beautiful. It doesn't take you on a journey like Ys does, but nevertheless you can't deny this is a work of fine art. Well, you can... but you'd be wrong.