Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender

Release Date: March 23th, 2004

I've been listening to this album for no particular reason. I know she made a surprise appearance opening for Fleet Foxes with some new songs (which i haven't listened to yet), and I know I loved this album in the previous decade, I just always had it ranked lower than Ys and Have One on Me.

Review:A lot has changed since 2010, my musical taste has gravitated towards pop and I just don't have the attention span to dive into those later albums. I think I tried to be snobbish by recognizing the difficulty skill level of the music. But this one? i don't know, this one is more child-like and easy to understand. Maybe you could say it's on the traditional side because I want to say the melodies are easy to predict. At the same time, I could feel that way because I overplayed this album from years past.  I would say that "Peach, Plum, Pear" is not a good introduction song to a new fan. it was a stand out for me, but i gotta admit, its irritating at first. "En Gallop" is still my favorite song here, but "Sadie" and the last track really resonated with me this time around.

Summary: I used to rank this lower than her later works, but revisiting now, I think it aged better than the rest.

Favorite Songs: Sadie, "En Gallop", Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Rating: 9/10

Vienna Teng - Warm Strangers

Release Date: 02/24/04
Genre: Piano Pop, Easy Listening

I learned of Vienna Teng from Last.fm and I clicked on her first because of her pretty picture, so her voice has to be good. And it is. She's a engineer turned singer/songwriter. It's funny how she slip passed me under the radar all these years. She's not radio friendly catchy, but she is easy listening melodic jazzy classical piano catchy.

Review: The first three tracks just showed me that she was easy to listen to, but not too impressive, but track 4, the ballad "Shine" made me take a step back. It's heavenly in song, and gloomy in words. It's very gentle and the sight hint of background strings are amazing. After that, I realized she was special. I just wanted to hear her voice to give me comfort. "My Medea" has the epic feel to it with the strings moving in closer in the middle.

Tracks 7 and beyond are the strongest. Catchy yes, but mainly beautiful piano plus vocals working well. "Anna Rose" is very heartfelt, "how it grows, heaven knows, Anna Rose." She does a vocals only song in "Passage." The story it tells is pretty sad.

Summary: Mandy Moore's new stuff is trying to sound like artists like Vienna, except Vienna is naturally herself. I like to listen to Vienna to go to sleep. It's peaceful and restoring. She's not a rockstar, and that's one of the cool traits about her.

Key Tracks: Shine, Anna Rose
Rating: 7/10