Listening to the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered the other day a similar point was raised when they got around to playing a snippet from the new Joanna Newsom CD. There were 4 or 5 people in the discussion as they were previewing the best of the new fall releases and the divide between them on Newsom and others of her ilk was quite stark. They either loved or loathed her.

As much as I enjoyed Newsom's debut CD on the first 3 or 4 spins I really haven't touched it since. Same thing happened with Tori Amos' "Under the Pink" CD of about 10 years back and with Fiona Apple's debut "Tidal". A few spins then filed away to gather dust. The panel on the show also threw Kate Bush into the mix but I'd say she's had a much more varied output than the 3 women above.

Does the impatience with this sort of music have anything to do with the fact that Apple and Amos play the piano and Newsom the harp? We're much less inclined to vent when someone like Elliott Smith or Sufjan Steven get all maudlin on our ass.

I'm not sure it's really a female-male issue (as Haines seems to state) though as I'm just as impatient with songsmiths like Damien Rice, Ryan Adams or even Conner Oberst at times because like you said Kyle "yes, we get that you're in pain" now shut the fuck up.

I think for me as well it also comes down to the simple fact that over a 4 or 5 record span (as much as most performers will ever release) a group of talented musicians will almost always win out over a solo perfomer in complexity, variety and freshness of sound.