Mark Richardson

For her second album, Ys, indie-folk icon Joanna Newsom got everything she asked for. She recruited Steve Albini to record her voice and harp, Van Dyke Parks to arrange and co-produce a 30-piece orchestra and ?Jim O’Rourke to mix. She commissioned a lavish cover painting and elaborate packaging, including a......

Historically, pop artists — even rock & roll bands — weren’t always expected to write their own songs. The Beatles’ early catalog is clogged with covers — and yet, sometime during the Fabs’ reign, when rock & roll was poised to become rock, and “authenticity” carried increasing weight, all that......