Divers
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LP / Format
Drag City / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
This dense lyricism is keenly matched with rich, luxuriant instrumentation and Divers perhaps reaches a zenith in Newsom’s arrangement skills.
100
These are startlingly beautiful, fiercely inventive songs, couched in the metaphysical, touching on the universal, born from a deeply personal place.
96
Such is the album’s richness and fluidity that one could ignore Joanna’s words and still come away enthralled, which is not a statement to be taken lightly when it concerns a piece of work as involved as this.
95
With a formidable knack for telling an engaging story in the space of a song, Divers is further proof that, as a lyricist, Newsom is second to none.
91
Divers proves Newsom is still capable of maintaining one of the most original voices in the world of music while constantly giving that voice new ways to speak.
91
She’s often described as childlike, due to her lovely, elfin voice and her affection for fairy tales, but Divers comes from a highly sophisticated mind, with its complicated, polyrhythmic arrangements and lyrics that explore the nature of time.
90
For all its bewitching scholarly accomplishment, this is a wonderfully natural-feeling album, whose heart has even more to offer than its thrillingly skilful head.
90
It's a truly incredible album, a special album and a rare album. Give in to it because, before you're ready to let it go, it's gone.
90
Rather than breaking from Newsom's tradition of complex, bewitching songwriting, Divers feels like the culmination of all of Newsom's incredible work over the past decade.
90
In many ways, Newsom’s new record is a distillation of all the differing qualities that have made her albums to date so distinctive, combining the childlike simplicity of The Milk Eyed Mender, the ambitious, almost symphonic arrangements of Ys and the stylistic variations of Have One On Me.
90
Divers is, to greatly oversimplify its project and to mention only one of its many mythic frames of reference, about the fall and redemption of humanity. That divine catastrophe is scaled down to the commonly human quantity of the sensible work of art, rich in emotional honesty and poetic complexity.
90
This is an album that is constantly unfolding over its themes, so the only option remaining is that of acceptance of her ingenuity. If you want to make it easy, you can acknowledge the density and move on. If you want to understand the core of the record, you'll have plenty of details to work through for what now seems like forever.
90
Like all Newsom’s albums, it is full of beautiful music and lyrics that initially appear enigmatic but are in fact simply dense, but it’s the first one to embed within itself, on various levels, the necessity to continue mining its depths.
85
Her consummate craft is a given; what surprises every time is her ceaselessly renewing sensitivity for life's vicissitudes and the fantastic ways she finds to express them.
83
Divers doesn’t have the same sort of scope of Newsom’s last release, 2010’s triple-disc Have One On Me, but it in no way lacks for grandeur or spectacle. The multiple, multifarious layers of pianos, stringed instruments, guitars, and drums blend together to create a stunningly beautiful full-on pop symphony.
83
The album winds up feeling like the first in Newsom’s catalog that won’t be considered a classic, but it’s proof that a sturdy, thought-provoking, and rewarding record doesn’t necessarily need to stand next to her past work to find its own greatness.
83
If she has indeed made her most musically rewarding album since the first one, it’s telling that Divers doesn’t stretch Newsom’s music any further than the last two albums have. It’s just more organized, is all! Praise be!
80
It’s reassuring that, five years on, the 33-year-old is back with something utterly predictable: yet another masterpiece.
80
A concept album about history, memory, movement, loss and love, the emotional tone here — a wry, wistful melancholy — is pretty straightforward, a function of Newsom's tightened focus.
80
It’s at turns maddening, exhausting, enrapturing, insightful and very beautiful. But it always feels like the work of an artist who’s out there on her own, doing something no one else is doing.
80
Less immediate than her debut but not as challenging as her most recent work, Divers is an ideal distillation of everything that makes Joanna Newsom one of the most unceasingly fascinating musicians working today.
80
Newsom can make her audience work almost as hard as she does, but the rewards are worth it: Dazzling, profound and affecting, Divers' explorations of time only grow richer the more time listeners spend with them.
80
Though ‘Divers’ is a close relation of Newsom’s previous record ‘Have One On Me,’ it also harks back to the beautiful simplicity of her earliest work. It doesn’t, however, storm off to explore entirely new landscapes with quite the same ferocious tenacity as previous albums.
80
The singer-songwriter's first album in five years, Divers, adds electric guitar to the mix, yet stays true to her original template of epic poetry set to masterful harp-plucking and vocal ascents that climb toward the stratosphere.
80
The goals aren’t as lofty as before, but by streamlining her sound, she is able to hit with some of the most direct and powerful songs of her career.
80
It’s when everything begins to fan out like a peacock’s tail at the height of the courting season that you’re reminded just why Newsom is a 21st century oneoff.
80
Newsom's working with a darker palette of colours here, and in all respects - her ideas, musicianship and vocals - is evidently a master.
80
Singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom's latest record is equally beautiful and conceptual.
Oct 25, 2015*
Random number generator told me to put 3
EDIT: New random number is 44
EDIT(2): Congrats! Today's number is 76
EDIT(3): Incredible!! Our new random number is 88!
EDIT(4): I finally listened to it! Non-random number = 86!
EDIT(5): Dam son gotta bump it up to an 89.
EDIT(9.4): 9.4 BNM
EDIT: New random number is 44
EDIT(2): Congrats! Today's number is 76
EDIT(3): Incredible!! Our new random number is 88!
EDIT(4): I finally listened to it! Non-random number = 86!
EDIT(5): Dam son gotta bump it up to an 89.
EDIT(9.4): 9.4 BNM
Sep 27, 2016
The orchestration made me feel as if I were a character in a middle ages folk tale. I love that feeling.
fav tracks: Leaving The City, The Things I Say, Divers
fav tracks: Leaving The City, The Things I Say, Divers
Mar 15, 2016
Divers tends to be a fusion of her previous albums. The songs are complicated and pretty intimist.
Joanna Newsom stills Joanna Newsom, some old fans can find that she doesn't really change but I think J.N improves her special music's approach. In my opinion, Ys is her best album but Divers is also awesome. Any songs are bad, Sapokanikan is just amazing. I can't say much more things so listen it !
Joanna Newsom stills Joanna Newsom, some old fans can find that she doesn't really change but I think J.N improves her special music's approach. In my opinion, Ys is her best album but Divers is also awesome. Any songs are bad, Sapokanikan is just amazing. I can't say much more things so listen it !
Mar 5, 2017
This is my first time listening to Joanna's music and i'm not a huge fan of her singing style. Maybe it'll grow on me but her voice comes off a little goofy to me, and the whimsical subject matter doesn't help much either. A few of the instrumentals are pretty nice, but overall I ain't feelin this too much.
Jan 14, 2016
experimental pop, I couldn't get into this at all, the vocals are extremely irritating (in my opinion) and there is very little melody, the lyrics are interesting and there are one or two good moments but overall I found this impossible to enjoy
stereogum.com
Listen: Joanna Newsom – “Make Hay” 
stereogum.com
Video: Joanna Newsom – “Divers” 
END OF YEAR LISTS
| #3 | / | Time Out New York |
| #4 | / | musicOMH |
| #5 | / | Cosmopolitan |
| #5 | / | The Daily Beast |
| #6 | / | Magnet |
| #6 | / | Mashable |
| #7 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| #8 | / | No Ripcord |
| #9 | / | FLOOD |
| #10 | / | The Guardian |
| #12 | / | Clash |
| #13 | / | Pitchfork |
| #13 | / | Q Magazine |
| #14 | / | Newsweek |
| #14 | / | The Wire |
More Lists
MISC LISTS
| #2 | / | Exclaim (Folk & Country) |
Track List
- Anecdotes
- Sapokanikan
- Leaving the City
- Goose Eggs
- Waltz of the 101st Lightborne
- The Things I Say
- Divers
- Same Old Man
- You Will Not Take My Heart Alive
- A Pin-Light Bent
- Time, As a Symptom
Contributions By
Otisredding, thisisabtlgrnd, crouton, patton, spiceoflife, Pmart992, erik, philthy, royalflush, alexgonzriv, PureRage
Added on: August 10, 2015
