Over the weekend, Joanna Newsom celebrated the one-year anniversary of Divers by sharing a new song recorded during that album's sessions, "Make Hay." The piano-based pop song bounces lightly, with a woozily struck celesta and a Wurlizter warming Newsom's intricate writing.
Her lyrics are as evocative and mysterious as ever: "I was the queen of the rodeo / (And everybody'd know) / And you were the keeper of the lions / And we were gored, and abased, and adored, and erased, all before our time? / It was before our time." When Newsom released Divers, NPR's Ann Powers found those tangled loops of words a playful puzzle: "If her music has the lushness of a garden, it's really a labyrinth, a game; all but the most casual listeners will soon find themselves trying to map it."
And it seems there's even more coming: The YouTube description teases, "Second AnniDIVERSary gift is China — start digging now!"
Divers is out now on Drag City.
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