I’m currently so obsessed with 24-year-old harpist and very oddly-voiced folk singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom’s new record Ys, a five-track but nearly hour-long epic that sounds much like some long-lost Grimm’s fairy tale adapted into a musical work performed by a 32-person orchestra. And although the CD’s been in heavy rotation on my stereo since I was graced with a promo copy several months ago, I still have yet to completely come around to Newsom’s debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender. Which might have something to do with that record’s more persistent baring of her occasionally chipmunk-like vocal work, which ThisNexter saltimbanca cautions “definitely takes some getting used to. Some people will probably never grow to like it. I, on the other hand, love her. She combines ethereal harp music with interesting vocals, and her songwriting is nothing short of amazing.” Boxhead also swoons for The Milk-Eyed Mender, since “in the world of ‘girls with pianos,’ Joanna plays harp instead. Bundle this with an incredibly visual lyrical and playful attitude to songwriting, you end up with something completely unworldly.”

Also at the forefront of the freak-folk movement, a sort of psychedelic-folk revival believed to be helmed by Newsom (much to her dismay), Animal Collective have tribal-chanted their way into the heart of Fred Wilson with their record Feels. Fred regards the 2005 release as “terrific,” and I can vouch that Feels has so many moments of noisy and sublime craziness that are really perfect for jumping up and down on the couch at parties (also, when I saw Animal Collective earlier this year one of the dudes was wearing a spelunking helmet, which is awesome).

Considered by some to be “Pied Piper of Freak Folk,” Devendra Banhart is finally starting to grow on me with his beautifully joyful 23-song 2005 record Cripple Crow. “There’s a bit of the airy mystical chamber-folk of Nick Drake and a bit of the cheery modern pop-folk of Bright Eyes, a little Latin flavor, some hippy folk stuff,” says blogger Cleek, which sums up Cripple Crow quite nicely. My favorite-ever Devendra Banhart moment, however, is probably his cover of Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing),” now available for download at Dreams of Horses.

Banhart also appears on Desert Doughnuts, the debut record from Brooklyn’s Metallic Falcons, released earlier this year. Starring Sierra Cassady of CocoRosie, this side project has a sound that I once described as “scary-beautiful, all dusky guitars, haunted-house piano, and windswept vocals that start off sweet as a choir of stoned angels and then turn into Nico on downers.” Which still seems pretty accurate, but blogger Skatterbrain really nails it with this review:

“The songs here could be considered art-rock if anything, though it is speckled with influences of freak-folk, post rock, opera, found sound, you name it, it’s bound to be buried in here somewhere. The opening track ‘The Journey’ manages to disguise itself as a choir of angels just long enough for you to settle in before it turns into a burning shoegaze affair with dramatic rambling percussion, tom-rolling away under the haze of foggy distorted guitar.”