Joanna Newsom - Divers (2015)

I think this is my least favourite song on the album.

It's still very nice.

This needs someone like Tom Waits to sing it. Her voice distracts too much from the tune.

This is easily the best song, so far.

Apparently this song has:

Piano accordion
Recorder
Andes Recorder-Keyboard
Estey Field Organ
Violin

on it.

Multi-tracked vocals.

Lovely

Track 6 - The Things I Say.

That sounded like a penny whistle.

6: The Things I say

If I have the space of half a day
I'm ashamed of half the things I say
I'm ashamed to have turned out this way
And I desire to make amends

But it don't make no difference, now
And no one's listening, anyhow
And lists of sins and solemn vows
Don't make you any friends

There's an old trick played
When the light and the wine conspire
To make me think I'm fine
I'm not, but I have got half a mind
To maybe get there, yet

When the sky goes pink in Paris, France
Do you think of the girl who used to dance
When you'd frame her moving within your hands
Saying, "This I won't forget"

What happened to the man you were
When you loved somebody before her?
Did he die?
Or does that man endure, somewhere far away?

Our lives come easy and our lives come hard
And we carry them like a pack of cards:
Some we don't use, but we don't discard
But keep for a rainy day

Track 8 - Divers.

More harp.

7 :Title track.

Another video.

Strap yourself in.

It's going to be a long ride.

Seven minutes.

Sounds a bit Tubular Bells.

Lyrics of pure genius.

More agonising reflections on relationships, regrets and the loss of a child.

A diver is my love
And I am his, if I am not deceived
Who takes one breath above for every hour below the sea

Who gave to me a jewel
Worth twice this woman's life, but would cost her less
Than laying at low tide to see her true love phosphoresce

And in an infinite regress
Tell me why is the pain of birth
Lighter borne than the pain of death?
I ain't saying that I loved you first
But I loved you best

I know we must abide
Each by the rules that bind us here:
The divers and the sailors and the women on the pier

But how do you choose your form?
How do you choose your name? How do you choose your life?
How do you choose the time you must exhale and kick and rise?

And in an infinite capsize
Like a bull tearing down the coast
Double hulls bearing double masts
I don’t know if you loved me most
But you loved me last

Recall the word you gave
To count your way across the depths of this arid world
Where you would yoke the waves and lay a bed of shining pearls

I dream it every night:
The ringing of the pail, the motes of sand dislodged, the shucking, quick and bright:
The twinned and cast off shells reveal a single heart of white

And in an infinite backslide
Ancient border, sink past the West
Like a sword at the bearer's fall
I can't claim that I knew you best
But did you know me at all?

A woman is alive, a woman is alive
You do not take her for a sign
In nacre on a stone, alone, unfaceted and fine

And never will I wed
I'll hunt the pearl of death to the bottom of my life
And ever hold my breath till I may be the diver's wife

See how the infinite divides
And the divers are not to blame
For the rift spanning distant shores
You don’t know my name
But I know yours