Ys

Is Ys the best album of the year?
I have been listening to it for the past two weeks and it keeps growing and growing on me.

After the magnificent The Milk-Eyed Mender from 2004 Joanna Newsom - the most famous harpist from San Francisco - is back with Ys, another grandiose exercise in music writing: there are oboes, trumpets, violins, and French horns to accompany the beautiful string arrangements and magical lyrics.

Joanna Newsom is also playing the Barbican in January in a sold out concert with the London Symphony Orchestra. I'm eagerly looking forward to that.