Joanna Newsom - "Baby Birch".

A song of slow movements, of small gestures; moving one thing into place and then another. Arrange this, rearrange. Waiting for the constellation & configuration that will allow Joanna to say what she needs to say: to say, truly, It's been a long, long time / since I last saw you (4:33) and It's been a long, long time / how are you? (4:55). There is the challenge of singing these things, of draping them in melody, in a way that seems true. Later, toward the end of the seventh minute, all caution is ripped aside. The percussion breaks the lock. Joanna flicks open her knife and moves toward the drapes, toward the animal in the corner. There are tears in her eyes but it must be done. The song must be sung. I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her / and skinned her quick / held her there / kicking and mewling, upended and unspooling / unsung and blue."

Of course the roughest thing isn't the butchery. It's what the singer intones later, to the man she once dreamed with, as his shadow passes through the trees. Be at peace, baby, she sings, and begone.

[buy Joanna Newsom's exceptional new album / more from Have One On Me tomorrow]

(photo source)