Track Listing

1. One Week Last Summer
2. This Place
3. If I Had a Heart
4. Hana
5. Bad Dreams
6. Big Yello Taxi
7. Night Of the Iguana
8. Strong And Wrong
9. Shine
10. If

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1373 in Music
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Joni Mitchell is generally considered to be the single most important female singer-songwriter of the 20th Century. Her new CD features 10 great new songs that resonate on the level of some of her all-time classic work, with much of the material inspired by Joni’s passion to save the environment. Her lyrics on the subject are truly inspiring.

Joni Mitchell Photos (by James O'Mara)

More from Joni Mitchell

Blue

Court and Spark

Hits

Ladies of the Canyon

Hejira

Clouds

Amazon.com
Shine may ultimately register as a "fans only" milestone, but it proves that Joni Mitchell retains many of the storied calling cards of her best albums. The searing lyricism of 1971's Blue and the penchant for self-redefinition hailed by 1974's Court and Spark make cameos here, but sadly, lesser efforts' drawbacks abound. True, "Big Yellow Taxi" reprises the environmental dystopia Mitchell first poeticized on 1970's Ladies of the Canyon, but the occasion only prompts new pedantic effrontery ("This Place," "If I Had a Heart"). In this regard, Shine's especially cloying title track marks the worst offender. Blissfully, though, "Hana" boasts a driving rhythm section and blurting squirts of electric guitar and saxophone in support of a compelling character sketch, and "If"--based on Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name--paints a lyrical message of affirmation in bold strokes. Mitchell's songwriting shines brightest at such singularly poignant moments where specificity of images meets the vagaries of the instrumental arrangements, and, in the end, these and other highlights ("Bad Dreams," "Night of the Iguana") definitively carry the torch. --Jason Kirk

Customer Reviews

SHINE ON IT
AS FOR YEARS SHE HAD BECOME UNIQUE ,THE BEST FEMALE SINGER IN THE WORLD
SHE HAS A NEW WORK FULL OF FEELINGS SO DEEP ,SO TENDER,INCREIDIBLE JONI FOREVER,ONE MORE TIME WITH SHORTER,AND OLD FRIENDS TOGOETHER.
BRAVO ROBERTA JOAN ANDERSON,GOD BLESS YOU¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

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!"

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.