Joni Mitchell - Shine
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.51 You Save: $15.47 (82%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.47 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Shine
Free Music Review: Profound Ruminations from one of the Four Pillars of
Hit: 5 Stars
Canadian songcraft (Mitchell, Young, Lightfoot and Cockburn) weighs in with her deep concerns for the state of the world at this point in time. The CD left me in tears. Those expecting something like anything from her past should be prepared. This is the work of a woman with her eyes wide open and alarmed at what she sees transpiring in the world. Possessed of a planetary vision, Mitchell articulates her dismay with a resonating wallop that hopefully will inspire listeners to wake up to what collectively has been done in the name of greed and avarice to this planet and to those most disenfranchised. In no small measure her anger is directed at the US, one of the great abusers of power and position in the world, but hits other targets as well - religious zealots of all stripes who believe god so ordained that they should be Most Entitled that it gives them a blank slate to be inhumanely cruel to others, to the planet, to the future.
There is a lot to consider here. On the inner sleeve she quotes her lyric:
Holy Earth
How can we heal you?
We cover you like a blight...
Strange birds of appetite...
If I had a heart I'd cry.
Indeed, this CD will nearly bring you to tears, as it chronicles that hardness in the human heart galvanized by too much power and wealth in the hands of too few while concommitantly there are too many poeple on too little land, desperate for the very basics of human needs. As I have mentioned before, there was a famous case study by psychologists in the 60's at Yale (wonder if W was one of the subjects) in which colonies of rats were gradually and progressively denied access to resources and sustenance. All manner of social sociopathy developed and with overcrowding and deplinishing resources the colony fed on itself and wiped itself out.
Yes. What Mitchell sees is the damage done by tyrants be they in the Middle East, Burma, DC, anywhere where human life and the prospect of the future is sacrificed for the gains and interests of the privileged. That privilege can be the tax-cut endowed wealthy of the US, those whose glorious mansions have buried perfectly arable farm land, churches whose wealth was built on the backs of the poor, and the net result is that we are faced with what Heidegger called the question of technology: are we capable of recovering in our own being that reverence for the planet itself that sustains us. This is not a question to be answered with more gadgets. This requires a fundamental appropriation in our hearts and souls and thinking of an orientation that sees our fate tied directly to the fate of the planet itself. Thich Nhat Hanh would call this the principle of Interbeing. Hegel would advise you, much as Mitchell is with this, that what is on offer now is that Mother Earth is reversing centuries of the Master/Slave dialectic instigated by man's Cartesian obsession with the technological exploitation of the planet's resources. In the Scots' dialect of Dougie MacLean, we are about to discover that "you do na own the land, the land owns you."
In the midst of these oracular alarms, Mitchell delivers a simple reworking of Big Yellow Taxi. It stands out as a reminder of an age when people thought romantically, but also heralded an early warning about what we pave over. There are so many brilliant moments on this CD that focusing on any one of them does the entire effort a disservice. Those engaged with life itself will return to this disc repeatedly for encouragement to do something. In whatever measure, armchair rebellion with a latte is no longer sufficient, and the irony should not be lost on anyone that Mitchell has opted to release this disc via Starbucks - might there be anything more unsettling than ruminating with her on the issues she presents as you sip your soy based what the f you call it frappucino? That gulp caught in your gullet is your conscience.
Serendipitously, Mitchell closes the album with Rudyard Kipling's "If", and the arrival of this disc is just weeks on the heels of Petraeus' (ah, the Greek general from the polyponesis...) recitation before Congress of the same colonialist anthem. I doubt Mitchell knew that W's field marshall would recite this poem, but it adds to the sting and urgency of her call. Kipling might well have encouraged the neo-colonialism of an imperialist regime such as the neo-con US, that Mitchell could find provocation of another sort for just the opposite tack turns the lie of privilege inside out. In many respects this is a brave and remarkable disc.
Not 4 years ago, Mitchell threw the towel in on recording. To her the business was (and remains) a mysogynist cesspool of vitriolic rap and pee-pee stroking. It still is. The world has gotten even more putrid. "Men like war" she intones. There is something systemically wrong with the species at this point in history. If we don't get beyond the nation state, if we don't get beyond the Cartesian model of being, if we don't begin to see our fate as inherently linked to the fate of the planet, all these ifs have a consequence.
Young delivers his next statement in a couple of weeks. Cockburn and Lightfoot are in the studios. Those who manage to see the world shine, as though from outer space, who see the planet as a whole and not as a force of concentrating private interes, are calling the rest of us to prepare our way of thinking so that what is most true may lean over and take us into its confidence. If we heed that call...
Free Music Review: Refreshing!
Hit: 5 Stars
I was excited to find out about this new album from one of this country's greatest artists.
A friend on a message board asked for my thoughts on it, so I wrote this for him, but then decided to share it here and on my blog as well.
One Week Last Summer: This piece is gorgeous! I love the piano and the lush sound of the other instruments, synthesized though they may be. Bob Sheppard's alto sax compliments the surprisingly organic sounds of the synthesized instruments. She does a good job on the instrumentation though I would love to hear it with all real instruments. I love the recording of the piano, it sounds great!
This Place: That voice! Her voice is so expressive and unique. I never get tired of it. Her other instrumentation is every bit as unique and interesting as her guitar playing. This song has such a wide open arrangement, with the steel guitar reverberating in the back ground. It really gives you a feeling of open spaces.
If I Had A Heart: If I had a heart it would break at this song. Another beautiful, lush arrangement. The lyrics are haunting in these times of war and greed. Her phrasing is, as usual, wonderful. It's like her piano and vocals are performing a dance with the other instruments.
Hana: Wow! This track catches you off guard after the first three. I listen to all sorts of music, so combining elements from different genres is always interesting to me. The percussion sounds like it came from The Prodigy. With the slightly distorted kick drum, to the constant shaker it drives the song along nicely. Another gorgeous, lush arrangement, but this time interspersed with distorted sounds. Bob Sheppard's soprano sax sounds playful and jazzy at times. "Light the lamp."
Bad Dreams: "The cell phone zombies babble through the shopping malls" This song is a place of rest after Hana. While it is lush and peaceful, lyrically it may just fill your heart with despair. Haunting is the word I would choose to describe this one.
Big Yellow Taxi (2007): One wonders if she did this reworking of her classic tune to reclaim some ownership of it. Hearing this one there can be no doubt that it is hers. It's refreshing and organic, and it easily makes one forget the Amy Grant and Counting Crows versions of more recent years. She has such a wonderful knack for arrangements that you would never think would go with the lyrics, and this is such an arrangement. I'll never forget the version of Woodstock from Shadows And Light, it gave me the same feeling of a song being bourn anew. The message is as relevant today as when it was first released.
Night of The Iguana: Brian Blade's drums and Larry Klein's bass are the heartbeat of this one. The rest of the instrumentation is the blood. Joni's voice is the breath. You can visualize the scenes she paints with the brush of her words.
Strong and Wrong: Such a soft voice making such strong statements. Such emotion in the melodies, harmony, and instrumentation.
Shine: This song is basically a prayer and would be even without words. Sonically it reminds me of Sting's take on Little Wing from ...Nothing Like The Sun or Chick Corea and his Elektric Band II performing Space from the Paint The World album. Very open, peaceful and soothing. Like all the other songs on this album, it will make you think.
If: This song is probably the most radio friendly of the album, but that doesn't make it bad in any way. It's just more conventional in it's sound. It still has that lush, jazzy sound, but is more traditional in it's presentation. I've been listening to a lot of Steely Dan recently and this reminds me of some of their stuff. Pop with a jazz sensibility.
I highly recommend it.
Free Music Review: Joni's autumnal masterpiece, and another musical step ahead
Hit: 5 Stars
Joni Mitchell's first album of new songs in nine years finds her mourning the sad state of the planet, but with a newfound acceptance that all things have their place in the universe ("bad dreams are good in the great plan," as she puts it here, quoting her young grandson) -- including her own anger and disappointment. Despite the numerous Robinson Jeffers-like call-outs of money/corruption/greed/rage/war and the incivility of humankind, the album does not end up being disheartening, but the opposite. Her voice -- husky with age and chain-smoked American Spirits -- shines with a warrior's strength and defiance even in ragged armor, like Billie Holiday's late recordings. And most wonderfully, Joni is still pushing her music into vital new territory, foregoing the synthesizer-guitar textures of "Taming the Tiger" for piano, horns, percussion, and other warmly organic voices.
She boldly opens the album with an instrumental, which struck me as an ungenerous move on first hearing, but in the context of the rest of the album makes perfect sense on Joni's terms, which are the only terms on which she makes records, bless her. (Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young -- her true peers -- also specialized in weirding out listeners who expected more-of-the-same with each new record.) Every song gets a distinctive orchestration of its own, from the percolating "Hana" -- a portrait of an old movie heroine, an Irish bodhisattva disguised as a traveling maid, who had "a special knack for getting people back on the right track" -- to a playful reprise of "Big Yellow Taxi" rescored like French circus music. "This Place" has particularly sleek and engaging sound, blending lap steel, warm horns, and bright keyboards, with its reference to a neighbor in rural British Columbia who says, "When I get to heaven, if it is not like this, I'll just hop a cloud and I'm coming back down here..."
My favorite track on the album is the final one, "If," which advances the sinuous groove of "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" and "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" and other milestones into new realms. The lyric is paraphrased from a Rudyard Kipling poem, but Joni wrote the most stunning verse:
If you can fill the journey
of a minute
with sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
then the Earth is yours
and Everything that's in it
but more than that
I know
You'll be alright
You'll be alright.
Fittingly, the title track "Shine" is the purest expression of the essence of this album. After reciting a litany of offenses against the spirit, she insists that the proper response is to "shine your little light" into every corner of your life. It's not polyannic New Agey jive, but more like the alchemy of heavy global lead into spiritual gold: with this song, Joni even transcends her own identity as an angry Cassandra issuing dire warnings to a culture that doesn't want to listen. She's no stranger to Buddhist subtexts in her work -- "Refuge of the Roads" on Hejira was, among other things, a tribute to the vajrayana master Chogyam Trungpa, and "Taming the Tiger" was an allusion to Tibetan meditation practices for quelling the ego's rages. In "Shine," the Buddhist analogue would be Dzogchen, the Great Perfection -- the recognition that everything is just right as it is, even the things that insult the ego and bruise the heart.
We're lucky to be alive on the same dying planet that she is.
Free Music Review: The Great Lady is back...
Hit: 5 Stars
...and Jason Kirk is full of crap.
A "fans only" album? The title track being "cloying" and the "worst offender" on the disc? Dude, put down the bong.
Whether this goes down in time as Joni's greatest release ever will certainly always be a subject for debate, but to diss SHINE in this manner seems short-sighted and knee-jerk and kind of smacks of Mr. Kirk having only listened to it once or twice. Joni has definitely earned her chair at the table of great singer-songwriters and has legions of fans worldwide, but I'll step up to the plate and say that I haven't loved everything she's done (I've long since forgiven her for her "duet" with Billy Idol in the 80's [shudder])...but for those among us who've been waiting for Joni to make a comeback of sorts over the last decade, I say this: unless you are a cynic of astronomical proportions, the chances are that you will fall in deep love with this recording.
That being said, and now that I've descended from my soapbox, I'll go on to say it's not perfect, IMHO. I'm not all that ga-ga over the opening instrumental piece, although I will say it's easier on my ears than the extended instrumental passages in the center section of "Paprika Plains." Joni's forays into neo-classical composition have just never held me enthralled. And even though the 2007 remake of "Big Yellow Taxi" is certainly enjoyable and non-offensive, it begs the question: ummm....was it really necessary? My only other slight gripe would be in the sequencing of the last 2 tracks...had I been the producer, I would have made "Shine" the closing track and "If" would have preceded it. "If" is a classy retelling of Rudyard Kipling's poem and I like it fine, but am I the only one who thinks it ends rather abruptly? It kind of gives me the feeling of being on the dance floor and having the record stopped before it's over. "Shine," which for these ears is one of the most GORGEOUS, INSPIRATIONAL songs Joni's ever written, is for me the perfect disc-closer. It's soft, lovely, meditative and serves as sort of a benediction for all humanity. I firmly believe it will go down into every fan's book as one of her all-time classic compositions. And it's SO good to see James Taylor working with Joni yet again on this track.
So I close by saying again: if you're a long-time fan of Joni (as I have been since the release of MILES OF AISLES), then I feel very safe in saying that not only will this CD not disappoint, it will also grow on you with repeated listenings. As I've said about a handful of other true artists, we are very fortunate to be living in Joni's lifetime...the world is indeed a better place because of her often-imitated, never-duplicated music. Shine on, Joni.
Free Music Review: So worth the wait!
Hit: 5 Stars
Joni Mitchell has been my favorite singer since I was 18 years old, but I have to admit that I'm rarely immediately blown away by her new releases. The last time was the amazing "Turbulent Indigo". After such a long wait for new material, I was in equal parts excited to finally hear it and nervous that I wouldn't like it. I needn't have worried.
"Shine" is a wonderful CD!
Having listened to it four times already, I can honestly say that I love it. Starting out with the wonderful instrumental "One Week Last Summer", "Shine" remains lovely and poignant throughout. Some might be quick on the draw to dismiss it as just more of Joni whining about the world's woes as she sees them, but if you take the time to listen to the lyrics (and read along), you'll find that she is dead on. Something very different from her previous social commentary is the fact that, while Joni does decry the world's injustices, the overall tone is empowering... we all have the ability to change the course of fate. The song "Shine" really sums up the whole idea (or at least as I interpret it)... that whether what comes at you is good or bad, it's up to you to deal with life in a positive way. This is probably the most optimistic set Joni has ever done.
To my mind, there is not a false word or false note on here. Lyrically, I would say that Joni is as strong as ever, and musically, the sound is completely fresh, very atmospheric, and extremely well played and produced. As for my fear that Joni's voice would be weak and whispery, I actually think she sounds better than she did on "Taming the Tiger".
Each of the tracks on "Shine" stands on its own, but played in sequence they make for a really great set. One admission, and I'm probably on my own here... "Big Yellow Taxi" is the one slightly low point for me. While lyrically it fits the package and musically restyled it falls into place, it has never been my favorite Joni song (save the really great version she did in her concert "Painting With Words and Music"). It's not a bad cut... it just doesn't thrill me like the rest of the CD.
The packaging is really a departure for Joni. I always look forward to her paintings, but the photography is really stunning (or maybe it's just the dancers... geez, I need to work on my abs). There is a great clip on YouTube that has excerpts of an interview with Joni as well as bits from the ballet... definitely worth seeing.
All in all, I am thrilled with this CD, and so happy to see Joni in top form... thanks for this!