Divers (Joanna Newsom album)

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Divers
Joanna Newsom - Divers.jpg
Studio album by Joanna Newsom
Released October 23, 2015 (2015-10-23)
Genre Chamber folk, avant-garde, baroque pop
Length 51:52
Language English
Label Drag City
Producer Joanna Newsom, Noah Georgeson
Joanna Newsom chronology
Have One On Me
(2010)Have One On Me2010		 Divers
(2015)
Singles from Divers
  1. "Sapokanikan"
    Released: August 10, 2015
  2. "Leaving the City"
    Released: September 20, 2015

Divers is the fourth studio album by U.S. singer-lyricist Joanna Newsom, released on October 23, 2015 via Drag City.[1]

The album was revealed on August 10, 2015, along with its first song, "Sapokanikan", which was released digitally as the first single.[2] The cover art, album packaging, and music video for the album's title track feature the work of artist Kim Keever. The music video was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson with whom Newsom worked for the film Inherent Vice.[3][4]

Speaking about the album's creative process in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said "I ... spent a year or two on the instrumental arrangements and overdubs. I wanted the character and colors of the instrumentation to shift definitively, from song to song, which entailed a wide pool of collaborators and a lengthy collaborative process with each person." She further described the process of making the album as "probably the most fun I’ve had making a record".[5] Entertainment Weekly also reported Newsom "as using an arsenal of nearly a dozen keyboards and synths including clavichords, Mellotrons and Marxophones" for the album while members of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra feature as players on the album.[6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 88/100[7]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[8]
The A.V. Club B+[9]
The Daily Telegraph 4/5 stars[10]
Entertainment Weekly A–[11]
The Guardian 4/5 stars[12]
NME 4/5[13]
Pitchfork Media 8.5/10[14]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[15]
Slant Magazine 4/5 stars[16]
Spin 8/10[17]

Divers received critical acclaim, achieving an aggregate score of 88 on Metacritic based upon thirty-three reviews.[7] It receives a similarly high score of 8.6 on AnyDecentMusic?, with the collated scores of thirty-five reviews.[18] Critics praised the complexity of Newsom's lyrics and arrangements, while noting that the record is more accessible and compact than previous releases. In a positive review for Exclaim!, Stephen Carlick wrote that "Divers feels like the culmination of all of Newsom's incredible work over the past decade. It's the sound of an artist operating at the peak of her powers, employing all her greatest strengths at once to create an assured, moving work that corroborates what Have One On Me already suggested: that Joanna Newsom is one of the finest songwriters of this generation."[19]

Pitchfork Media awarded the album the 'Best New Music' tag, and stated that "on her fourth album, Divers, Joanna Newsom comes down in size if not scope". They go on to describe the record as "a love letter in the form of a reckoning with death, Divers deals with making tangible the huge mass of impending doom about the loss of love. You know, the small stuff. It's a gorgeous record, full of her usual harp wilyness and baroque rhythms".[14]

James Skinner, writing for Drowned in Sound, concluded by saying that the record is, "Conveyed with sincerity, warmth and the musicianship and love of language and storytelling that sets - has always set - Joanna Newsom apart, Divers is a colossal achievement."[20] Skinner awarded the album full marks. The Skinny also gave the record a perfect score, saying that after listening to the record, "It’ll be hard not to conclude that this is surely one of the albums of the year"[21]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Drowned in Sound Drowned in Sound's Favourite Albums of the Year 2015 2015
7[22]
Exclaim! Exclaim!'s Top 10 Folk & Country Albums 2015 2015
2[23]
FLOOD Magazine FLOOD's Best of 2015 2015
9[24]
The Guardian The Best Albums of 2015 2015
10[25]
Magnet Magnet's Top 25 Albums of 2015 2015
6[26]
musicOMH musicOMH’s Top 50 Albums Of 2015 2015
4[27]
NME NME'S Albums of the Year 2015 2015
17[28]
No Ripcord Top Albums of 2015 2015
8[29]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2015 2015
13[30]
Readers' Top 50 Albums 2015
10[31]
Stereogum The 50 Best Albums of 2015 2015
22[32]

Track listing

The track listing was officially announced by Drag City on August 10, 2015.[33]

All songs written by Joanna Newsom, except "Same Old Man" (traditional).

No. Title Length
1. "Anecdotes"   6:27
2. "Sapokanikan"   5:11
3. "Leaving the City"   3:48
4. "Goose Eggs"   5:01
5. "Waltz of the 101st Lightborne"   5:22
6. "The Things I Say"   2:35
7. "Divers"   7:07
8. "Same Old Man"   2:26
9. "You Will Not Take My Heart Alive"   4:01
10. "A Pin-Light Bent"   4:26
11. "Time, As a Symptom"   5:28
Total length:
 51:52

Personnel

Performance

Production

  • Joanna Newsom – producer, songwriter, harp, piano, keyboard and vocal arrangements
  • Steve Albini – engineer
  • Ryan Francesconi – arrangements, conductor
  • Noah Georgeson – engineer, producer and mixing
  • John Golden – mastering
  • Kim Keever – cover art
  • Samur Khouja – engineer
  • Annabel Mehran – photographer
  • Paul Thomas Anderson – photographer
  • Nico Muhly – orchestral arrangements on "Anecodotes"
  • David Longstreth – orchestral arrangements on "Time, As A Symptom"
  • Ryan Francesconi – additional arrangements
  • Dan Cantrell – additional arrangements
  • Noah Georgeson – additional arrangements
  • Kevin Barker – additional arrangements
  • Neal Morgan – drum and percussion arrangements
  • Peter Newsom – drum and percussion arrangements
  • Dan Osborn – layout designer
  • Justin Rice – engineer
  • Sadaharu Yagi – engineer

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[34] 63
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[35] 30
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[36] 25
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[37] 70
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[38] 81
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[39] 14
French Albums (SNEP)[40] 168
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[41] 22
Irish Albums (IRMA)[42] 8
Italian Albums (FIMI)[43] 93
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[44] 26
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[45] 91
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[46] 56
UK Albums (OCC)[47] 10
US Billboard 200[48] 30

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/7587/Joanna-Newsom-Divers.aspx
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ http://drownedinsound.com/releases/19073/reviews/4149498
  21. ↑ http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums/joanna-newsom-divers
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Joanna Newsom – Divers" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  36. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Joanna Newsom – Divers" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  37. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Joanna Newsom – Divers" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  38. ↑ "Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=309 Joanna Newsom – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Joanna Newsom. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Joanna Newsom – Divers" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  40. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Joanna Newsom – Divers". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  41. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  42. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 44, 2015". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  43. ↑ "Italiancharts.com – Joanna Newsom – Divers". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  44. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Joanna Newsom – Divers". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  45. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Joanna Newsom – Divers". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  46. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Joanna Newsom – Divers". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  47. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  48. ↑ Template:BillboardEncode/J/chart?f=305 "Joanna Newsom – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Joanna Newsom. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
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