2.Y’s - Joanna Newsom

I don't think I've ever heard such an ambitious album come off so effortlessly. The songs are wonders in themselves, but the way the accompaniment sweeps and shudders underneath, full of filigrees and curlicues, is audacious and bloody amazing really. Nothing is simple, in fact it's almost like it wants to be more complicated. "Sawdust and Diamonds", the sole exception is all the more special for it's simplicity. There's such an amazing amount to be unpacked from this album, it's easy to forget that it's also so moving and human.