Wednesday, July 17, 2013

#955 Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark

I'm really averse to the whole singer-songwriter thing, anything that seems like it might be about personal problems made meekly universal, anything that might by performed in a coffee shop. Also, keening female singing. And there's strong shades of all that here, but it's better observed than usual, full of nuance and ambiguity. Sure, occasionally a song leads to a brokedown rhymeless listing of sentiments, but far more often there's a salvo of knotty notions that surge past half-understood.

Most importantly, the backing is great, skyrocketing past the usual Joe Hum'n'Strum fare: here is a full band that surges and lurches, full of free-roaming bass and swerving pacing dancing against Mitchell's restless lilting. The feeling is the feeling of feelings, improbably overcoming the crusty crust on my crusty heart 3.5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment