Joanna Newsom

Ramones fans – stop what you're doing and run, for Ys is your nemesis. Canadian harpist Joanna Newsom is touring her new album (pronounced "eess"), and it's about as different to the 2-minute balls, dolls and drugs model as you can get in contemporary popular music. Newsom's second major release is complex, dynamic and challenging - it clearly won't appeal to everyone. It's one of the most critically acclaimed albums of recent years but many music lovers vehemently hate it – it's pretentious, they say, and unlistenably so. Her voice is like a nasal elfin whine, fey and affected, warbling indecipherable lyrics over winsome harp wankery and senseless off-time orchestration. That's an opinion you may well stay with if you've heard Ys.

But if you've listened closely to Ys, committed some more of your time to acquiring the taste, you'll probably disagree - in which case Newsom's Glasgow date is a must-see. With each listen, another multifaceted lyrical paragraph, twinkling harp phrase or symphonic flourish acquires the benefit of your doubt, until the whole coalesces into the focus of gooey-eyed wonderment. With some effort Ys becomes an injury-time contender for Album of 2006 - and this gig will be one of 2007's early highlights.