Joni Mitchell - Hejira
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.19 You Save: $2.75 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.99 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Hejira
Free Music Review: A Joni album even non-fans can love
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an album for non-Joni fans. If you failed to be lured by Mitchell's plaintive voice and seductive lyrics the first time around in the 1970s, this CD may finally catch up with you. Probably the album with the broadest popular appeal, the title track -- which led the lineup on Side A of the old vinyl version -- starts off with the whimper of a few nearly-inaudible guitar notes. But the song quickly takes off, introducing the mysterious, beckoning arhythmic guitar riff that crops up at intervals and appears to support the entire structure. "Hejira," lacking the severer tonal wanderlust that characterizes much of Mitchell's work, seems almost melodic by comparison. The introspection and evocative mist are still there, but these are much more grounded songs -- in fact, they verge on the hummable. Never has Joni been so less-is-more; this time, she stays with the listener through the rugged musical journey rather than veering off for a solo trek, as she did on previous albums.
"Song for Sharon," now the first Side B cut on the CD, ends on a hushed note. Despite that unfortunate placement -- it was originally the lead song on the A side -- the album heats up quickly. The acoustic guitar-slaps of "Black Crow" bump up the tempo along with the emotional ride. By the time Mitchell closes the box with the final track, "Refuge of the Road," the journey seems too short too have produced all that experience. With so much bang for the buck, this album cultivated a deservedly loyal following, even among those who have compared Joni's voice to a jungle macaw. This album is simply her best.
Free Music Review: A Reason To Be Attentive And Satisfied
Hit: 5 Stars
The long and short on 'Hejira' is that the music built around the fretless bass playing of Jaco Pastorious is pretty and minimal.On the longer end Joni's lyrics as always convey a series of images,all designed for either a physical or emotional effect.As is typical of Joni Mitchell's mid 70's material the music on this 1976 recording seems to have a life of it's own and belong to no one style-kind of soft folk-rock mixed with sudtle jazzy grooves,all taken at low key tempo's.
As the cover illustration indicates Joni Mitchell's main lyrical subject matter is the road as a metaphore for life,such as in the stirring title song.Along the way Joni pays tribute to to apparent influences-"Amelia" Earheart and musically on "Furry Sings The Blue",the imagry of Memphis,Beale Street and W.C. Handy flying about in every line.Typical for Joni the dencely layored lyrics contract with the sparse musical backup but catchy melodies like "Coyote" and the swining style of "Blue Room Motel" work there way in and out of these songs.
The individual who keeps their ears open and listens carefully to the imagry that Joni conveys will find themselfs almost entranced.Even if it seems like alot the music is always worth something,along with the Joni's always lovely singing.Generally speaking this is just as wonderful as any of Joni Mitchell's finest recordings but as with all the rest it has a special quality all it's own,in this case marking her transition into a more heavily jazz influenced sound.Not one of the nine songs will dissappoint for sure.
Free Music Review: The BEST of the best...and that's saying something!
Hit: 5 Stars
By the time of Hejira's release in November of 1976, Joni Mitchell had already established herself as one of the most gifted singers and composers in popular music. While "Blue" had validated her formidale reputation, each successive album -- For the Roses, Court & Spark, Miles of Ailes and The Hissing of Summer Lawns -- pushed Mitchell's star-maker machinery into high gear. She became what she ironically most feared: a bona fide celebrity whose only real peer, in an industry she mistrusted, was Bob Dylan. And so she fled. And, because of her consummate artistry in turning her life's ups & downs into music, she bestowed on us her finest work to date: the mournful, soulful, elegiac Hejira. This record, which is more than 20 years old, still remains as haunting and vivd as it did on the first listen. It remains her finest statement on the burden of being a successful woman without a family trying to quell the competing desires (in all of us) of the need for unbridled freedom and the beckoning of hearth and home. Hejira transports the listener to a bleak landscape peopled with crazy black crows, promiscuous coyotes, childhood girlfirends, Amelia Earheart, restless hitchhikers, blue motel rooms and one strange boy. With Hejira, Mitchell acheived what most songwriters hope to aspire to: a poignant musical piece which stands on it's own terms as masterful poetry. Even after the epic title track fades away, you can still feel those wheels turning...Free Music Review: This is THE Joni album
Hit: 5 Stars
You love/are in love with Joni. Check. You already have this album. Check. Oh, you don't have it? I bought this vinyl LP when it first came out years ago and it was a shocking experience. Joni never released an album like this. I had every Mitchell album before I bought this one. It was instantly my favorite. This is the all-time "roadtrip" album. The guitar on the title cut alone gives you the feeling of rolling down the road. The final song "Refuge of the Road" says it all. My personal favorite is the album opener "Coyote" (also check out this song on The Last Waltz - amazing). "Coyote" features the immortal Jaco Pastorius on electric bass. His bass is the second or harmony vocal to Joni's voice. At the end of each verse she sings "a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" and Jaco hits a high note that is basically unreachable by any other bassist. At the end of the song he hits the note repeatedly and it is mesmerizing. Suddenly it is realized that this is her best album both musically and lyrically. And it's the first song!!!!! This is the album that you start with in your journey with Joni and the one where it literally ends. If she only made this one album she would still be Hall of Fame bound. The only album that even comes close to this is Grace by Jeff Buckley. This album and Grace are two profound and moving musical experiences. I highly recommend that you own both of them and wear them out. Such beauty in musical form cannot be found elsewhere. Enjoy.....Free Music Review: deep, philosophical and simply perfect
Hit: 5 Stars
After the popular and critical acclaim of C&S, and the rude thrashing of her brilliant and exciting music explorations in THOSL, JM felt compelled to contemplate the direction she was to take in her life and her music. What was she escaping from and where was she running to? In more than one sense, the idea of 'travelling and running'preoccupied her mind and gave rise to Hejira, her most philosophical work, if not also the most poetic and lyrical.
Doomed flights, coyote, philandering travellers, blue motel rooms,black crows etc form the images and provide the metaphor for wanderlust.
JM sometimes alludes to the futility of a headlong crash to an illusive romantic ideal, in the sublime 'Amelia'. (it was just a false alarm), yet run we must, fatalistically, crashing forth like prisoners of the whiteline on the freeway.
At other times, the Blue Motel Room offers but a temporary refuge in which dreams of a truce or a halt to the constant running away from a loved one may be momentarily entertained.
Musically, JM traded the expansive orchestra sounds of THOSL and C&S for sparse guitar accompaniment on her ruminations on the uncertain outcome of change, beautifully underscored by complex bass arrangements and saxophone, creating a pensive mood for contemplation.
Hejira draws out the philosopher and poet in JM and gives us some of the loneliest and most desolate and beautiful music that we have the fortune to experience in our lifetimes.