Shine

"...Shine is a chronicle of a world out of balance: a world where technology threatens to vanquish nature, where 'cellphone zombies babble through the shopping malls', where we are all but consumed in 'the jaws of our machines'..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer C.O'Brien

Joni Mitchell: Shine

I have yet to purchase Shine but in collecting material for a proper review (coming soon), I felt that I'd gathered enough to garner a page. I hope you enjoy it.

Joni Mitchell on her mood in making Shine:

There's a strong undercurrent of discontent in Shine. What are your feelings about the government these days? I was angry at the handling of New Orleans and how quick the American people were to impeach a man for sex and how slow to move on other things that made everyone in the world want to nuke America. I was also angry at the inability of this generation to know what to do; their inability to move at all, which is an unusual thing for youth.

What do you mean? In their youth, my generation was ready to change the world, but when the baton was passed to them in the '70s they fell into a mass depression because all revolutionaries are quick to demolish and slow to fix. When handed the baton to fix it, they didn't know what to do so they kind of degenerated into the greediest generation in the history of America - the hippy, yippie, yuppie transition from '60s to the '70s to the greedy '80s and Ronald Reagan. My generation dropped the baton and spawned this totally lacklustre generation.

Machiavelli said, "People don't know what to do with peace. It always degenerates into fashion and fornication," and that's what we have. We are not building the kind of strong people in this third generation that we are going to need for the catastrophes that lie ahead. They aren't getting any ethical instruction. I'm reluctant to say 'moral instruction' because it can get so diabolical; the things that are done in the name of morality are completely diabolical. Mojo interview 2008

Joni Mitchell interviewed by Travis Smiley, December 07

promoting her latest album, Shine

Joni Mitchell: Shine

"...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..." Amazon reviewer Stephen Silberman

"...The concept...involves the insanity of war, both Humanity against one another and the war we have waged with our planet..." Amazon reviewer Shannon Freeman

"...The songs are classic Joni, sometimes swinging, other times brilliantly introspective, always thought-provoking...." Amazon reviewer William Merrill

"...Her voice is like electric velvet..." Amazon reviewer Mary Ann Ward

"...Shine finds her in a relaxed atmosphere of pop, jazz and folk stylings, fleshed out with lush orchestrations and varied rhythms. In a lesser artist's hands, some of this new material might come off as preachy, but as always, Joni says it all in the service of the music, and gorgeous music it is...and while venting and lamenting, there is a surprising note of Hope in many of these songs..." Amazon reviewer Mark D. Prouse

"...Proud. That is how I feel to be part of the generation that produced such a great singer songwriter as Joni Mitchell..." Amazon reviewer Gaylen Halbert