New Joni Mitchell - "Shine" (Stereogum Premiere)
Today's the street date for Joni Mitchell's first LP in ten years, Shine, a song she says lyrically is "reminiscent of that old Sunday School song about letting your light shine." There's a minute of spacious grooved synth-plinks before we even get there, but Joni Mitchell never lied; this tune's about being all you can be through the vagaries and rubbish of modern life. James Taylor makes an appearance via some subtle guitar work (Joni asked him to "playing short figures like a saxophone"). There's a behind-the-beat, Blue vibe going, and aside from a little clunky sermonizing, it's a lovely, slow-rolling set piece. Starbucks will be proud.
Yep, Shine is out today on the 'Bucks's Hear Music label, their second release (after Sir Paul got the party started). So, here are your options if you wanna hear more: You can buy the record in MP3 format at Amazon's finally launched new Amazon MP3 store (and then tell us about your test drive), or you can head to Starbucks today and listen to Shine which, if the Macca rollout is any indication, is probably on infinite repeat.
Posted at 2:14 PM
Tags: Joni Mitchell
I say, skip Joni's "Shine" and listen to Dfactor's "Shine" (at the URL) - More band for buck.
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Yeah, who's Joni Mitchell? Listen to some stupid blog troll and his shitty band!
Ugh. Stereogum you should ban self-promotion from your comments.
SHINE is beautiful, her best since Night Ride Home IMHO.
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And I like Joni singing "asshole"
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yay for Carey. I know it's unhip to like the buks' label but they put out some nice stuff, yay for this.
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@ dannygutters
I wanna shampoo you
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If and Hana are the standout cuts for me so far...but I'm sure I will like all of it.
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PS Thanx for posting this - I've been waiting for this all year
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I've listened to the song "This Place" about 22 times in the past 5 days, and the rest the album about a dozen times. It's really, really good.
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that should read "rest OF the album..."
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The women she's in competition with this week for new releases, P.J. Harvey and Nellie McKay, are more consistently interesting. I loved Joni most in the weird-jazz days of Summer Lawns and Hejira, and I have nothing against her getting explicitly political, but her rants a few years ago against Cheryl Crow etc. just seemed like a grumpy crone, and there's little in "Shine" to convince me otherwise.
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This cd is a letter to humanity to wake up .
Artists with her presence of mind should be hailed in our society not discouraged.
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leave it to joni mitchell to shine some light
into the dog eat dog way of life most are forced into living. always knew she was way ahead and
smart enough not to fall into the star trap so
many talented singers fall into. wake up and look
around, put the phone down, screw the mins and
take a long walk somewhere, lifes so short, people
we love so often leave us so quickly, enjoy and
respect this world and try to make things better
Shine, this new cd has lots to say and the music
just flows, haunting, beautiful, full of life
finally someone takes on something in music that
really has something to say. deep stuff
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Joni has always been about really listening;
to waking up and paying attention.
She has been a cornerstone and
we have journeyed together.
She does not need to compete with anyone,
even if she is a Crone
which isn't a bad place to be.
We crones come with wisdom, laughter and gumption.
At this place, we have pretty much seen it all.
Go Joni, you will always have a place in my heart.
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I can't stop listening to "This Place" from Shine. I love the whole album, but, then again, I've considered Joni a genius since I was in high school (over twenty years). So I am a little biased. Nevertheless, I must say there is something about this album that is brilliant without needing to be showy, or worse, experimental. It's beautiful....i wish Leonard Cohen would follow with a similar album.....
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