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# "Bad Dreams" – 5:41
# "Bad Dreams" – 5:41
#* "Bad Dreams Are Good" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 [[BBC2]] radio interview with [[Amanda Ghost]], the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.<ref name= "bbc2">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/documentaries/#joni Come In From the Cold: The Return of Joni Mitchell], BBC2 radio programme, 2007-03-20.</ref>
#* "Bad Dreams Are Good" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 [[BBC2]] radio interview with [[Amanda Ghost]], the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.<ref name= "bbc2">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/documentaries/#joni Come In From the Cold: The Return of Joni Mitchell], BBC2 radio programme, 2007-03-20.</ref>
#* "Bad Dreams Are Good" lyrics appeared as a poem in the New Yorker, September 17, 2007.<ref name= "nyr">[http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2007/09/17/070917po_poem_mitchell], New Yorker, 2007-09-17.</ref>
# "[[Big Yellow Taxi]] (2007)" – 2:47
# "[[Big Yellow Taxi]] (2007)" – 2:47
#* In March 2007, ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that ''Shine'' will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.<ref name= "guard">{{cite news |last=Sexton |first=Paul |url=http://jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=1582 |title='I came to hate music' |publisher=The Guardian |date=2007-03-19 |accessdate=2007-03-20 |format=reprint}}</ref>
#* In March 2007, ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that ''Shine'' will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.<ref name= "guard">{{cite news |last=Sexton |first=Paul |url=http://jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=1582 |title='I came to hate music' |publisher=The Guardian |date=2007-03-19 |accessdate=2007-03-20 |format=reprint}}</ref>

Revision as of 20:33, 2 October 2007

Untitled

Shine is the seventeenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and was released on September 25 2007 by Starbucks' Hear Music.[1] It was the singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in nine years, after 1998's Taming the Tiger.

Joni Mitchell, who said she was retiring from music several years ago, inked a two-album deal with Starbucks' Hear Music that began with the release of "Shine." The 10-track CD "feels like the return of Joni the storyteller," said Ken Lombard, the president of Starbucks Entertainment who also oversees Hear Music. Mitchell last recorded for Warner Music.

The album debuted at #36 in the UK charts, making Mitchell's first Top 40 album in the UK since 1991.

Performance

The album was played live with accompanying choreographed ballet dance done by the Alberta Ballet. It was filmed and shown before an audience on September 25th in NYC at the Sunshine Theater on Houston street. The backdrop of the ballet featured photographs by Joni Mitchell. These photographs were taken using a camera pointed at a Sony TV screen that's image was inverted, producing a green and white image. The photographs were exhibited at the Viloet Ray Gallery on the same night as the showing of the film. The cover of shine features a still of the dancers in the ballet.

History

In 2002, Joni Mitchell famously left the music business. The public first learned that she had returned to writing and recording in October 2006, when she spoke to The Ottawa Citizen. In an interview with the newspaper, Mitchell "revealed she's recording her first collection of new songs in nearly a decade," but gave few other details.[2] Four months later, in an interview with The New York Times, Joni said that the album was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good--in the great plan.'"[3] Though in The New York Times Mitchell said the album's title would either be Strange Birds of Appetite or If, the title Shine was confirmed by her official website on March 15.[1]

The Sunday Times wrote in February 2007 that the album has "a minimal feel, a sparseness that harks back to her early work," adding that "rest and some good healers" had restored much of the singer's vocal power.[4] Mitchell herself described Shine as "as serious a work as I've ever done."[4]

Track listing

  1. "One Week Last Summer" – 4:59
  2. "This Place" – 3:54
    • In a recent interview, Mitchell referred to a "second guitar song [inspired when] they decided to whittle down this mountain behind my sanctuary and sell it to California as gravel for Mac Mansions (sic)."[5]
  3. "If I Had a Heart" – 4:04
    • "If I Had a Heart, I'd Cry" is a reaction to the state of the environment and what Mitchell called the current "holy war." In February 2007, The New York Times described the song as "one of the most haunting melodies she has ever written." Of the impetus that inspired her to write the song, Mitchell explained, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. I can't cry about it. In a way I'm inoculated. I've suffered this pain for so long. …The West has packed the whole world on a runaway train. We are on the road to extincting ourselves as a species."[3]
  4. "Hana" – 3:43
  5. "Bad Dreams" – 5:41
    • "Bad Dreams Are Good" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC2 radio interview with Amanda Ghost, the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.[6]
    • "Bad Dreams Are Good" lyrics appeared as a poem in the New Yorker, September 17, 2007.[7]
  6. "Big Yellow Taxi (2007)" – 2:47
    • In March 2007, The Guardian reported that Shine will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.[8]
  7. "Night of the Iguana" – 4:38
  8. "Strong and Wrong" – 4:04
  9. "Shine" – 7:29
    • Toronto Globe and Mail described this song as "a lush lullaby for the soul."[9]
  10. "If" – 5:32

References

  1. ^ a b JoniMitchell.com Latest News (update refers to March 27 BBC broadcast of new songs "six months before her first LP in ten years is released," implying a release date in September) Cite error: The named reference "marfif" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Fischer, Doug (2006-10-08). "The trouble she's seen: Doug Fischer talks to Joni Mitchell about her seminal album, Hejira". The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  3. ^ a b Yaffe, David (2007-02-04). "DANCE: Working Three Shifts, And Outrage Overtime". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  4. ^ a b Eggar, Robin (2007-02-11). "The Renaissance Woman" (reprint). Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  5. ^ Eggar, Robin (April 2007). "Both Sides Now" (reprint). Word. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
  6. ^ Come In From the Cold: The Return of Joni Mitchell, BBC2 radio programme, 2007-03-20.
  7. ^ [1], New Yorker, 2007-09-17.
  8. ^ Sexton, Paul (2007-03-19). "'I came to hate music'" (reprint). The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
  9. ^ Gill, Alexandra (2007-02-17). "Joni Mitchell in person" (reprint). Toronto Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2007-03-11.
  10. ^ Gumbel, Andrew (2007-02-09). "The protest goes on: They bombed paradise (and I put up a multimedia extravaganza)" (reprint). London Independent. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
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