For an artist whose full-length releases have to now numbered just two, Joanna Newsom is an artist of improbable range. Any attempt to reconcile her 2004 debut, the sparse and whimsical Milk-Eyed Mender, with 2006’s Van Dyke Parks-orchestrated follow-up, Ys, would be an exercise in futility. They could just as well have come from different times, or different worlds, but they’re undeniably the work of a singular talent. With her latest outing, Have One On Me, clocking in at over two hours and featuring its equal measure of solo harp and piano, and ensembles of every size, one could picture this as a loose-fitting collection of B-sides, a best-of album, a retrospective of a career that started with her bedroom recordings, Walnut Whales (2002), and ended with Ys. But saying this album is a mixture of her two previous records feels almost too easy. It doesn’t so much find Newsom in between the temper that channeled MEM and Ys, as beyond it; it is undeniably a progression. But by comparison to this record Ys can feel leaden, a plea to hold your breath through to its end. Have One On Me, with its varied mood and careful pacing, allows the listener to breathe, to feel its distinct parts in motion instead of all at once. It can be claimed that Ys packs as many ideas, as much songwriting, almost undoubtedly as many notes as Have One On Me but at half the length. This, here, is the work of a matured Newsom, an artist who in the last four years has somewhere found the patience and the insight to let her boundless vision unfold at a manageable pace. As I heard a friend remark the other day, no matter your taste, it’s almost impossible to walk away from this record without thinking to yourself, “this girl is not kidding.”

RIYL: Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Björk, Marissa Nadler, Bat For Lashes, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan

Recommended Tracks: 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 3.3, 3.6

- Guest Writer Rafik Salama