This has been a big week for Joanna Newsom, that so-called "annoying" harpist pixie that put out The Milk-Eyed Mender a couple years ago. Her new album, Ys (pronounced "ease") came out on Tuesday and it's nothing short of astounding; consisting of five songs between seven and seventeen minutes long filled with Joanna's cryptic, "thee"-and-"thou"-ridden prose and Van Dyke Parks' full-blown baroque orchestral arrangements, the album is something of an indie symphony.

Topping it off, Joanna played a concert the same evening at the Somerville Theatre, which, needless to say, also incredible. She opened with "Bridges and Balloons," "The Book of Right-On" (both from her debut), and a traditional Scottish song, and then dove right into playing Ys in its entirety. Like Fiona's Extraordinary Machine, Joanna's live rendition of Ys lacked the same impact without its lavish orchestral garb, but her live band (whose members played everything from the timpani to the saw to the accordion to the mandolin to the jawharp to the xylophone) still managed to blow the minds of the audience.

Now with my share of discussing good music out of the way, allow me to digress: I must mention to you that none other than Justin Timberlake will be coming to Boston in February. I wish I could tell you that I'll see you there, but someone's mother (we won't mention whose) apparently thought I was joking when I told her to see if Ticketmaster had any tickets available. EBay, here I come...