History Music / JoannaNewsom

*** It could be seen as Joanna's account of her relationship with Bill Callahan - especially considering all the references to song titles of Callahan's in "Go Long."

** ''Divers'' ends with the word "transcend" cut off after the first syllable, and begins with the word "sending." This may be a ShoutOut to ''FinnegansWake''.

For tropers looking to get used to her sound, great songs to start with include "Sprout and the Bean," "Good Intentions Paving Company," "In California," "Emily," "Colleen," "Peach, Plum, Pear," "Baby Birch," "Divers," and "Time, as a Symptom." ProgressiveRock-minded listeners may wish to dive straight into the seventeen-minute "Only Skin".

** Explicitly referred to in-song: "Run away from home; your beard is still blue".

* CapitalismIsBad: As with a number of political tropes, this can be found in her work, but it's very subtle and you'd miss it if you weren't trying to find it. For instance, "Colleen" discusses the title character coming to know "such things as the laws that govern property". It's pretty clear we're not meant to think this is a good thing. [[spoiler:The song ultimately ends with the narrator abandoning civilisation and returning to the ocean, where "never in your life have you felt so free"; she also explicitly invites the listener to join her.]] Similarly, the early version of "En Gallop" from ''Walnut Whales'' has some lines discussing property, which don't come off as any more approving (they might actually sound like WordSaladLyrics at first, but it's pretty clear that they're not).

*** It could be seen as Joanna's account of her relationship with Bill Callahan - especially considering all the references to song titles of Callahan's in "Go Long".

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Lola Montez in "Have One on Me".

* ReligionIsWrong: "Colleen" is a literal, albeit subtle example. The amnesiac narrator is assumed to be "a thief or a whore," renamed Colleen (which literally means "girl"), taught "prayers for chastity," and told she is "blessed among all women to have forgotten everything". She does not fit in with society and is tormented throughout the song by the sense that something is wrong. [[spoiler:A traveler ultimately awakens her memory; she ends the song by saying "I don't know any [[SophisticatedAsHell god]][[PrecisionFStrike damned]] Colleen," returning to the ocean, and explicitly inviting the listener to join her.]] May also qualify as a ReligionRantSong, depending upon one's criteria; it might be too gentle, too subtle, and/or too much of a FracturedFairyTale to qualify for some people.

* WorldWarWhatever: "Waltz of the 101st Lightborne" opens "on the eve of the last of the great wars/ after three we had narrowly won". It seems this version of World War IV involves time travel.

** Moths represent grief on "Cosmia," and she hold a framed moth on the cover.

* 2010 - ''Have One on Me''

** "eastering" - likely meant as an antonym to [[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/westering "westering;" sung in "Good Intentions Paving Co."

** PaintingTheMedium: Arguably, the fact that we never learn Colleen's real name qualifies as a subtle example of this trope: perhaps, if we actually heard it, something similar would happen to us.
* ParentalLoveSong: [[spoiler: "Baby Birch" is a tragic version of this, being an ode to a child that didn't make it to birth.]]

* ''The Milk-Eyed Mender'' (2004)
* ''Music/{{Ys}}'' (2006)
* ''Have One on Me'' (2010)
* ''Divers'' (2015)

* ''Walnut Whales'' (2002)
* ''Yarn and Glue'' (2003)
* ''Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band'' (2007)

By the snap your steel string sounded just before your snores unwound it\\

[[quoteright:347:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Joanna_Newsom_ellegirl1_7710.jpg]]

* ''Ys'' (2006)