It's a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back...
'Emily', a 12-minute ode to her younger sister. It seems to be about the almost sacred bond between the two sisters, and is filled with coded allusions to their childhood world.
You taught me the names of the stars overhead
That I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of that rote universe
Were those Pleiades loosed in December...
Shared secrets and experiences are suggested but never spelt out. Heartbreak is alluded to, and the drift into lovesickness.
You came and laid a cold compress on the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, amen, amen, amen
I can't help but think of the Brontes here
as the child sisters gaze out their window at 'mountains kneeling, felten and grey...
In the course of this one song, the music and lyrics shift from reflective to intense to almost druggily drowsy. It is Newsom's way with words that really startles, the oddness and richness of her imagery, which is closer to the nature poetry and any musical contemporary...
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