The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
BMP_concert-top-banner-fixed

Joni Mitchell

SHINEINSIDE
Joni Mitchell’s first album for Starbucks’ Hear Music label isn’t being hyped as a concept album, but that’s what it is. Almost every song wags a finger at the impending environmental apocalypse, rampant political evils, and those who would allow such badness to thrive. Hopeful glimmers —“Hana,” a stoic call for volunteerism and keeping the faith — cut through the gloom, but Mitchell’s not making any long-term plans. “We have poisoned everything and oblivious to it all/The cellphone zombies babble through the shopping malls,” she sings in “Bad Dreams.” The title song rails against both “Frankenstein technologies” and “assholes passing on the right,” among other modern-day bummers; even the remake of “Big Yellow Taxi” takes on a discomforting 11th-hour hue absent from the original. Mitchell produced the album and played most of the instruments (including the cheesy disco-era drum machine). The arrangements are stark and lean, relying on ominous, droning washes of ambient sound, subtle jazzy guitar and keyboard, well-placed sax bursts, and honeyed pedal steel to provide coloring. Subdued but not entirely resigned, Mitchell sings in a strong, assured voice that’s still warm and welcoming, though lowered by decades of ecologically unhip tobacco smoke. Closing with “If,” with lyrics adapted from Rudyard Kipling, she assures, “I know you’ll be all right.” Then again, maybe not.

Latest Articles

090605_gardot_list2

Mixed messages

3play+ do what they wanna; Melody Gardot follows her instincts
Given the sound of its first track (which is also the title of the album), you'd have every reason to think that 3play+'s debut CD is about to plunge you into Bill Frisell–style Americana.
By JON GARELICK  |  June 02, 2009
090415_Low_l

Giant step

The Low Anthem sign with Nonesuch Records
Indie-folk trio the Low Anthem — Jeff Prystowsky, Ben Knox Miller, and Jocie Adams — have signed with Nonesuch Records, which will re-release their highly-acclaimed disc, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, on June 9.
By CHRIS CONTI  |  April 15, 2009

Play by Play: March 13, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  March 10, 2009
090406_badplus_list

Covers uncovered

The Bad Plus plus a singer
The Bad Plus plus a singer
By JON GARELICK  |  March 09, 2009

Play by play: March 6, 2009

Plays from A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  March 03, 2009
090220-sara_list

Curiouser and curiouser

Sara Hallie Richardson says hello, to say goodbye
Sara Hallie Richardson, we hardly knew ye.
By SAM PFEIFLE  |  February 19, 2009
090220_copeland_list

Shemekia Copeland | Never Going Back

Telarc (2009)
Telarc (2009)
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  February 18, 2009
090109-stevens_list

True voices

Becca Stevens and Laszlo Gardony
When I first checked out Travis Sullivan's Björkestra live, it wasn't to see the singer. But live, the Björkestra (at the Regattabar last October) turned my expectations upside down.
By JON GARELICK  |  January 12, 2009
081024_giant_list

Good fellows

Brian Blade and company help blaze jazz’s newest path
The jazz tide is shifting once again.  
By JON GARELICK  |  October 20, 2008
080523_esperanza-list

Breaking through

Esperanza Spalding steps up her game
In the overall retail picture, jazz accounts for about three percent of sales, and a “hit” CD is anything that exceeds 10,000 copies.
By JON GARELICK  |  May 19, 2008
listallison_m

Allison Moorer

Mockingbird | New Line
Working with producer Buddy Miller, Moorer takes an approach opposite to Lynne’s on the stripped-down Lovin’ , giving each track its own distinct personality.
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  February 26, 2008
080222_cowboy_list

O, Canada!

Cowboy Junkies, k.d. lang, and Kathleen Edwards are not hockey pucks
You’d be forgiven for assuming that nothing’s been going on in Canada for the last few years beyond the interconnected shenanigans of that country’s indie-rock elite.
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  February 19, 2008
080208_catpower-list

Cover girls

Cat Power and Shelby Lynne
On Cat Power’s second album of covers, she might be traveling the same territory Elvis did in “Kentucky Rain” — a country road with low clouds on a chill, gray afternoon.
By CHARLES TAYLOR  |  February 04, 2008
071221_jazz_list

Skimming the cream

Jazz: 2007 in review
Some of my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.
By JON GARELICK  |  December 17, 2007
SHINELIST

Joni Mitchell

Shine | Hear Music
Joni Mitchell’s first album for Starbucks’ Hear Music label isn’t being hyped as a concept album, but that’s what it is.
By JEFF TAMARKIN  |  November 06, 2007
071026_giant_list

Standards

Julius Hemphill at the Gardner, Cyrus Plays Elvis
For much of his life, no one played Thelonious Monk pieces except Thelonious Monk.
By JON GARELICK  |  October 23, 2007
071026_cash_list

Prime time

Heeere’s . . . Johnny Cash!
To many political conservatives during Vietnam, championing the music of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Joni Mitchell was the equivalent of French-kissing Chairman Mao.
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  October 23, 2007
071109_kt_list

Pop shock

KT Tunstall comes dressed for success
The UK version of American Idol is called Pop Idol — and that’s left Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall with mixed feelings about the whole notion of having a pop hit.
By JIM SULLIVAN  |  October 16, 2007
071019_nadler-list

Out of the dark

Marissa Nadler breaks into Boston
Needham native Marissa Nadler got her start as a singer-songwriter.
By RYAN STEWART  |  October 16, 2007
list_HERBIE-HANCOCK---RIVER

Herbie Hancock

River: The Joni Letters | Verve
Herbie isn’t fooling around — the guest stars are here, yes, but Hancock is stretching out, with languid, meditative takes on the Mitchell songbook.
By JON GARELICK  |  September 24, 2007
listTHEATER_WICKED_Victoria

Stage worthies

Fall on the Boston boards
The roar of the greasepaint precedes that of the autumn wind this year.
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  September 12, 2007
070914_foos_list

Happy endings

Bad news begets good tunes
The end is nigh! And I’m not talking about the mortgage market.
By MATT ASHARE  |  September 12, 2007
listBill1

Local color

Bill Flanagan’s TV eye shines in New Bedlam
Bill Flanagan certainly had a lot of himself and Rhode Island to bring to his second novel.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  August 28, 2007
070824_giant_list

Three for the road

Herbie Hancock, Renee Rosnes, and Luciana Souza
Maybe it’s Larry Klein’s world and the rest of us just live in it.
By JON GARELICK  |  August 21, 2007
listWoodyG

What would Guthrie say about America in 2007?

Just folks
This year’s edition of the Newport Folk Festival was almost perfect.
By BRIAN C JONES  |  August 15, 2007
list_feat_streetMusic1_cove

Urban bards

The summer sidewalk subculture that enlivens the city all year round
“You’ll find us. We’ll sound like Kenny G on acid.”
By DEIRDRE FULTON  |  August 01, 2007
list_beats

At home with home

Sara Cox arrives at domesticity with Crowded Is the New Lonely
Women may dominate the pop charts from time to time, but in the annals of acknowledged rock/pop greatness, they are few in number.
By SAM PFEIFLE  |  May 30, 2007
070518_neilyoung_list

North American idol

Two sides of Neil Young
Neil Young always knows what he’s doing — especially when he doesn’t.
By JAMES PARKER  |  May 16, 2007

Praise the Lord

Mary Lou’s star rises from the Red Line Platform
This article originally appeared in the March 13, 1993 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By BRETT MILANO  |  March 28, 2007
070302_swedes_list

Stockholm calling

Peter Bjorn and John, El Perro del Mar, and Lo-Fi Fink lead the new Swedish invasion
In “Young Folks,” the hipster hit by the Stockholm-based indie-pop trio Peter Bjorn and John, Peter Morén boasts that “we don’t care about the young folks.”
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  March 03, 2007

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group