Snakes and Ladders has some brilliant moments, I agree. I think it's Joni at her best when she takes pot shots at people and issues without losing her lyrical abiltity to turn a phrase or her incredible gift for metaphor. "the perfect air-brushed angel, stapled into all his brain cells (like a centerfold)" or "how the seasons steal away--first you're green, then you're grey." Of course, Number One is still my favorite on that disc and I would kill to hear the acoustic version you all have spoken about!
Where DED fails for me is when Joni strikes out at issues but doesn't push her lyrical twists, her play with vocabulary and her irony of word selection. I like my Joni verbose, witty, hawk-like in her observations, and so much of DED is whittled down to phrases that seem too short IMHO. Ken N/P-Deb Talan, forgiven (Who sounds so much like early Jonatha/the Story that it's spooky)
