This isn’t about gaming, but about music. In an age where so many heroes of the 60’s counterculture musical rebellion are shamelessly promoting products they would never have previously endorsed and carting themselves out on revival tours like the worst sort of self-parody, a familiar voice assumed to be gone forever has returned with some fresh new music to remind us that getting older doesn’t have to mean becoming decrepit. That voice is Joni Mitchell.

Mitchell left the music world after releasing her last new material a decade ago, completely disillusioned with the ‘cesspool’ as she described the music industry. Obsessed with ‘golf and rappers’ and ‘lining their pockets, she once said of the music industry:

I hope it all goes down the crapper. It’s top-heavy, it’s wasteful. It’s an insane business. Now, this is all calculated music. It’s calculated for sales, it’s sonically calculated, it’s rudely calculated. I’m ashamed to be a part of the music business. You know, I just think it’s a cesspool.

But thankfully that cesspool couldn’t keep her silent, and she has returned in great form in an independent release titled Shine being released via Starbuck’s ‘Hear Music’ label (irony, anyone?) as well as on iTunes and Amazon.com’s fledgling MP3 download service. Like last year’s resurgent Bob Dylan release, this is the sound of an elder statesman reminding us what honesty in music sounds like.

I have loved Joni Mitchell seemingly forever – I enjoyed hearing songs like ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and ‘Help Me’ on the AM radio my parents had playing on top of the fridge in our kitchen as we got ready each morning. But it was really the release of ‘Shadows & Light’ in 1980 that caught me – I was very much into jazz and a big fan of Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, so when I heard that they had teamed up with her I made a trip to Tower records and bought the album. Songs from it remain mainstays on my iPod, and I have since collected the entire Hejira / Court & Spark / Mingus era of recordings.

I am not typically much into music lyrics, but rather listen to a vocal for the musical effect of the singer. And Joni Mitchell is an amazing vocal musician – who happens to write insightful and intelligent lyrics. Her rhythmic sense is always full of surprises and innovation and the way she drops the chorus in the ‘wrong’ spot of ‘Night of the Iguanas’ reminds us of how predictable and obvious music has become. She sings in the song ‘If’:

If you can bear to hear
The truth you’ve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your life”s work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools.

If you can draw a crowd
And keep your virtue
Or walk with Kings
And keep the common touch
If neither enemies nor loving friends
Can hurt you
If everybody counts with you
But none too much.

My wife thought her voice sounded tired at times but that it suited the music and she liked it. For me there was something that instantly connected like nothing of her’s I’ve heard in 27 years. Regardless of whether you comes for the lyrics or the magical way they float over the timeless music, it is worth the visit. Amazon.com has it for download, but if you just want to preview check it out at Barnes & Noble.

Tags: Misc