The Deeper You Dive

Apologies for the extremely long wait, it's been a busy summer. Nevertheless we're back with the conclusion to our analysis of "Only Skin"! We explore how Joanna expresses the crumbling of a relationship in a manner of which only she is capable. This song is the centerpiece of the album and is easily the most difficult to analyze if only for the sheer size of it. And yet we did it! Only one more track to go and then we'll end the season with a conclusion episode. Thanks for listening, it makes all the work worth it :)

On this episode of The Deeper You Dive, we dive headfirst into the colossal song that is "Only Skin". Not only is this song literally massive in size, playing at just under 17 minutes, the themes and ideas presented during those 17 minutes are large and profound.

This is the most famous song off of this album, and for good reason. It disobeys every 'rule' for modern music, and sees Joanna at perhaps her most unabashed and strangest. Though it can be said of this whole album, never has it been clearer in than in this song that Joanna Newsom is one of the most uniquely gifted artists in all of music.

On this episode of the Deeper You Dive, we take an in depth look at the third track of our album, "Sawdust and Diamonds". In one of her most devastating and beautiful songs to date, Joanna expresses her struggles with controlling her own desires as well as the crushing weight of grief.

This episode concludes our analysis of Monkey and Bear, the second track of the album. In it, we see how Joanna weaves a tale of conditional love into a farmland fable reminiscent of Orwell's "Animal Farm"

On this episode of The Deeper You Dive we start our analysis of the second track, titled "Monkey and Bear". This song is the most narratively straightforward on the album, but simultaneously one of the hardest to decipher. From intricate wordplay to dense and layered symbolism, this track begs to be analyzed.

On this episode of The Deeper You Dive we conclude our analysis of the introductory track, "Emily".

On this episode of the deeper you dive we begin our lengthy analysis of the album, starting with the opening track, "Emily". This song marked a considerable change in Joanna's songwriting, it is a sprawling 12 minute long journey that lays the framework for much of what is to come throughout the rest of the album.

Today's episode is a bonus episode where we take a brief look at a Joanna Newsom song that is not on our album, Ys. That song is "Colleen".

The analysis of this song serves to get us familiar with the artist's style, particularly her use of imagery and the importance of femininity/identity in her work.

Welcome to The Deeper You Dive, a podcast where we take a deep dive into 1 record per season. Season 1's album is Joanna Newsom's 2006 record, Ys. This first episode will cover a brief history of our artist, and a few notable bits of information to know before diving in to the record. All music used in this episode was found on Youtube Music Free Library