I love Joni Mitchell!
Fact.
Although, I feel I am too young to be this devoted.
After all, she is old enough to be my mother. That said, you can’t ignore class. The Beatles coulda been my Grandads; the Stones too.
Jimi?
Well, he’d just be a badly influential uncle.
Joni is pure and utter class. And she has ‘classes’ of fans, her folk fans, her Jazz fans, her in-betweeni fans.
I’m one of them. The inbetweeni.
And this is one of those albums. Closest call in her past life? Hejira!
The album opens with a two chord piano riff that takes your breath away. It is possibly the perfect opening stance. Two aces in a Texas Hold ’em.
The song (well it’s an instrumental) recalls a beautiful summer day and it is the best piece of music I have heard this year, bar none. The fact that it is instrumental is, I think, a brilliant holding device because how will Joni sound when she finally sings after a self imposed ten year retirement from the music scene?
Growly, gruff, mature, wondrous. That’s how she sounds.
The album is self assured, beautiful and flawed. Her 21st century take on Big Yellow Taxi that is the centrepiece of this great album doesn’t work for me, because it lacks the youthful rebellion of its inception.
‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling is given an interpretation that I think comes off, just.
But, overall, if I was 65, retired 10 years and making a comeback, this is how I’d like to do it.
Think Eric Cantona Playing for Man Utd in the Champions League and scoring a hatrick.
Then again. Think Joni Mitchell at the top of her game.
5 star. No doubt.
And, you know what. This confirms that Canada is music country of the year. If you are in any doubt check it out here.