Mitchell once remarked that her chords are depictions of emotions, that there is always a question mark to be found within them. Photograph: Jack Robinson/Getty Images 8. And although not everyone is a jazzed-up Joni fan, it is impossible to listen to the epic Paprika Plains (all 16 minutes and 21 seconds of it) and not marvel at the breadth and scope of her ambitious transformation. Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977)Įven compared with Hejira from the year before, this double album is a leap ahead in terms of abstraction and improvisation. Stand-out tracks are Hejira and Amelia – stirring, soulful retellings of introspection and exploration that wash over you. Not this one – her orchestral reworking of her earlier classics soar with ascending strings and bittersweet tenderness. Revisionist albums tend to fail miserably.
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Said to be inspired by environmental catastrophe and the Iraq war, Blue-era piano on its opening track, One Week Last Summer, gave fans exactly what they were waiting for. Shine (2007)Īfter the release of 2002’s Travelogue, Mitchell announced her retirement, only to return five years later with what many perceived to be a return to 70s form. More self-assured and at ease with where she is. The percussive rhythms and jazz inflections are there – but the melodies are softer and her vocals are tender. It may not be as compelling as Hejira, but there is still a lot here to admire. When she met the jazz giant, he pushed her in. Pre-Mingus, Mitchell said she was just dipping her big toe into the lake of jazz. Recorded in the months before Charles Mingus’s death, Mitchell’s 10th studio album is a total submersion. If jazz – and, in particular, Joni’s jazz – is a challenge, this isn’t the album for you. But there is enough lyrical reflection to keep the mega fans happy. The meandering melodies and layered voiceovers can be discombobulating. That said, it is a pleasant listen and her reworking of the title track, which she first recorded on 1968’s Clouds, is a sage reclamation of a classic. There is a smoothness to Mitchell crooning standards that seems slightly at odds with the artist we know and love. Both Sides Now (2000)Ī sumptuous concept album that lacks, perhaps, her supernatural edge. What begins promisingly (opening track Sunny Sunday is a reminder of her 70s work) soon disappoints with rhymes as basic as “And the oil spills / And sex kills.” That said, it won a Grammy for best pop album. Is any Mitchell fan truly comfortable with her 80s output? That is a rhetorical question, of course – please don’t tweet me. There are some things – such as Mitchell’s decision to jazzily segue into the Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody – that will remain for ever baffling. And, like Dog Eat Dog, sounds unremarkable when compared with her other work.
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Joined by guest artists Billy Idol, Tom Petty, Don Henley and Willie Nelson, this is very much a record of its era. She is virtually unrecognisable here, subsumed by a homogenised 80s sound that leaves you pining for the astral lifelines of her earlier work.
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Joni Mitchell is a non-conformer – which is why this is such an uncomfortable listen.