Ys (album) - Reception

Reception

The album leaked onto the Internet over two months in advance of its release when it was left unprotected on servers belonging to music criticism website Pitchfork Media.

Ys is Newsom's first album to chart on the U.S. music charts and it has sold more than 250,000 copies. The album entered the Irish Album Chart at #50, and was also nominated for a 2007 Shortlist Music Prize. The track "Emily" was ranked #9 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks 2006.

Since its release on November 14, 2006, Ys has received widespread critical acclaim, including a #1 ranking in Tiny Mix Tapes' Top 25 Albums of 2006, and CHARTbeat's Top 100 Albums of 2006 a #3 ranking on Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2006, and a #7 ranking Time magazine's 10 Best Albums of 2006. It currently has a score of 85 out of 100, the 15th highest scoring album of 2006 on Metacritic. By the end of 2006 Ys appeared in more than 50 year-end lists, placing inside the top 10 in 35 of them. Despite a negative review by the US Rolling Stone, the German version of the magazine named the album the second greatest of the year. According to Acclaimedmusic.net Ys is the third best album of 2006, and the 27th greatest record released that decade and the 271st greatest of all-time. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2009, the album started to appear in many "best of the decade" lists. Pitchfork Media named Ys the 83rd greatest album of the 2000s. Calling Newsom "unlike anyone else" aside calling the album "the most artistically ambitious indie rock enterprise of the decade" Ys is one of two Joanna Newsom albums placed inside the top 100, the other being The Milk-Eyed Mender . UK magazine Uncut placed the album inside their "150 greatest album of the decade" list, at number 21. Gigwise named Ys the 32nd greatest album of the 2000s commenting that "the record rightly received blanket acclaim upon its initial release and is already sounding better with age. Whether she'll ever top this new-folk masterpiece remains to be seen." The Times placed the album at number 26 in their top 100 albums of the decade list, while The Guardian named it one of the '1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die'. British magazine Clash placed Ys at number 13 in their '50 Greatest Albums Of Our Lifetime' list. German magazine Musikexpress named Ys the 92nd greatest album of the last four decades (1969–2009). Two Spanish magazines, Playground and Rock de Lux, have respectively named Ys their 83rd and 15th greatest album of the 2000s. About placed Ys at number one inside their greatest album of the decade list. In 2010, Tiny Mix Tapes named the album the 18th greatest of the 2000s and Cokemachineglow.com the 81st. Rhapsody named it the 46th best album of the 00s.