Joanna Newsom @ Albert Hall, Manchester, 31 Oct
At first glance, the Albert Hall’s stage is looking awfully bare tonight. The harp sitting dead centre is enough to remind us who’s in town, but there’s no backdrop – just the wood-paneled wall of the old chapel’s altar.
The instrumental lineup, outwith its crown jewel, is sparse, and the lights are turned up unusually bright. So complex, evocative and consistently dramatic are this artist’s songs that it’s a surprise to see that the venue hasn’t been decked out in the kind of visually sumptuous manner that would match them.
And then, Joanna Newsom walks on stage, and, to put it bluntly, she looks every inch Joanna Newsom: blonde hair long enough to rival Rapunzel and a Disney-princess dress to go with it.
The Californian has long had a reputation for perfectionism, and with Divers – her fourth LP, released last week – she took that to new extremes by reportedly taking two years just to work on the overdubs. As a result, this is her first show since 2013 and the first out-and-out tour she’s been on in quite a bit longer.
There’s rust, and it shows, quickly. She opens proceedings by beginning Bridges and Balloons in the wrong key, and stumbles a couple more times before the song’s out. “In case it wasn’t eminently clear,” she says with a grin, “we haven’t played in a while.”
Considering, tonight’s show is a revelation. It would be by any standards, really. Divers dominates the setlist; a gamble, given that Newsom’s records usually take months to firmly ingratiate themselves with the listener’s brain. Nobody here is under any illusion that they’ve wrapped their head around the album yet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t revel in how cleverly Newsom has arranged these songs for the stage.
Her band, which includes her brother, Peter, for the first time, rotate through instruments as she flits between harp and piano. It might feel premature to say so, but when the undulating Anecdotes sounds this bewitching, when Sapokanikan’s dramatic unravelling has the audience this rapt, and when the processional glimmer of Leaving the City hits this hard, there’s surely a case for Divers’ material standing among her very best.
There’s a smattering of older material, too, and as much as Newsom will never be able to please everybody – no Baby Birch, no Sawdust and Diamonds, no Good Intentions Paving Company – the likes of Have One on Me and Emily are welcome inclusions. She (ostensibly) saves the gorgeous Time, As a Symptom, Divers’ standout, for last. The crowd, though, have other ideas; despite the civilised all-seated setup, they're raucous in their appreciation for both the music and Newsom’s stage banter (“I got this new [on-head] microphone because I saw Britney Spears had one”).
A Pin-Light Bent, in all its sweeping, theatrical glory, kicks off the encore with Newsom playing solo; the joyous Peach, Plum, Pear, band behind her, closes it. One of her earliest tracks, it’s eccentric, enlightening and absolutely brilliant. Much like Newsom herself, then.