Joni Mitchell - Shine

Joni, what happened?

The one good thing I can say about this CD is that it retails for 18.99 and I only paid 9.99. I wish I could give it a half star for that. This is a far cry from the brilliant songwriter of the past three decades. Sad.
If they printed lyrics on CDs, I would have dropped this one back in the bargain bin where it belongs. The lyrics read like a page from the radical left's playbook. We humans are a "blight" on the earth and men are evil because, you know..."Men love war." Can you imagine her sitting in her VERY expensive home, looking out on the very beautiful view and writing this? Simply awful. At least she didn't title the disc "...and Bush sucks!" July 3, 2008

Another sad refrain.

I was hoping for something new from Joni Mitchell. "Shine" is, unfortunately, just more of Joni Mitchell's perpetually down tone point of view -- amplified with her amazing and remarkable musical and creative talents. I had hoped she had matured to a better and more positive place and would be less indulgent of her own unique style of finding no magic in anything. We KNOW Joni Mitchell COULD create something aesthetically and spiritually pleasing, because she's done it before. But she did not this time. July 2, 2008

Joni Mitchell Still Shines

she maJoni Mitchell's latest collection sports a sticker saying "The Radiant Return of One of the Greatest Singer/Songwriters of Our Time." Return? I hadn't noticed she'd gone away. Turbulent Indigo was released in 1994, and since then she's released a whole bunch of remakes with a new song or two thrown in on each. Not to mention Both Sides Now, in which she covered old standards like Comes Love and Stormy Weather backed by a full orchestra. At 65, I'd say Joni Mitchell's working pretty darn hard! Besides, Mitchell doesn't need these kinds of promotional gimmicks: her fans buy every jewel she quietly slips out, and we're so passionate that word-of-mouth always brings in new buyers.

Shine could be touted thematically, under that latest popular tropism, "Green": almost every song on Shine is about "this unfolding tragedy," environmental destruction. She doesn't bang our heads against the wall, but sings about the situation with deep and gentle pathos. I hate to break Shine into pieces, though, with lyrics here and music there: as Ann Powers pointed out in the L.A. Times, the genius behind Mitchell's work is that each and every aspect--lyrics, melody, phrasing, intonation, even cover art--is executed with enormous care and consideration for the whole. Thus it would be misguided to tear her work apart, even to quote lyrics out of context.

With the exception of one or two, the songs on Shine are typical Joni Mitchell--although, with her eclectic explorations, there really is no such thing as a typical Joni Mitchell song. Their effect on me, however, is typical. "This Place", for instance, a melodic elegy for the planet, is hauntingly addictive: every minute I'm not listening to it I want to be. While the lyrics could break your heart, you could choreograph a beautiful ballet to the melody. (The Alberta Ballet has in fact set a ballet, The Fiddle and The Drum, to Mitchell's music. It debuted in February 2007, and a new full-length adaptation will open in February 2009.)

My only sort-of quibble with Shine is the inclusion of yet another remake of "Big Yellow Taxi." Though the arrangement differs slightly from the original, with an almost Cajun sound, I for one don't need another version of one of the most overplayed songs in FM radio history. Granted, the song does fit in perfectly with the theme, reminding us that Joni Mitchell was issuing environmental alerts all those years ago.

Just one more thing: as a smoker, I have to say something about Joni Mitchell's enthusiasm for cigarettes. Some critics say she's ruined her voice with them, but I happen to like her husky smoker's voice at least as much as the bell tones of her youth. Sometimes I even prefer it: Mitchell used to do a lot of high-pitched woo-woo-ing that could break glass; the Ladies of the Canyon album is so full of woo-woo's I've been tempted on occasion to smash it. Writer Ann Powers is one critic who agrees with me, and says in her review of Shine, "Decades of committed smoking have changed her voice, and she makes an adventure of exploring her more limited range." Right on!
June 29, 2008

Lucky Paw

"Shine" is utterly delightful. If you are expecting "Ladies of the Canyon 2," Joni has forever been changed by the jazz sound that started to strongly permeate her music on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." "One Week Last Summer" is like a symphonic jazz overture with melody flavored by memory and playfulness. "This Place" follows with a strong melody and a classic Mitchell lyric, "When I get to heaven, if it is not like this, I'll just hop a cloud & I'm coming right back down here." "If I Had a Heart" is a political treatise that Mitchell hangs on melodic riffs, "Too much rage & desire; It makes you feel so feeble now; It's so out of hand -- big bombs & barbed wire." "Strong & Wrong" also mines similar territory, "Is that what God is for? Just a Rabbit's foot? Just a lucky paw for shock & awe?" My favorite track on the CD is "Hana" with its strong percussion & Mitchell's backing vocals like an electrified chorus. Like the Tennessee Williams play, "Night of the Iguana" could well be a jazz suite set in Mexico, "Can you hear the castanets? The widow is dancing down on the beach." The title track is the longest at seven plus minutes and echoes Mitchell's theme of measuring our wartime actions with against our highest religious understanding. Mitchell uses the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name as inspiration for the final "If." "Shine" is a meaty, melodic, excellent jazz hybrid that only Joni Mitchell could write. Bravo! June 17, 2008

Shine is Brilliant

While I was at first put off by the opening instrumental on multiple listenings it really does fit. The songs remind me of an earlier Joni without sounding rehashed. A must for any Joni fan. I don't patronize Starbucks so I would have liked to have seen an earlier wide release. April 11, 2008

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