> I guess I just don't understand the difference in allowing someone to express > their discontent or disappointment with Joni's work, even as they acknowledge > that it's Joni's vision. It reeks of those high school days when kids all > pretend to like the same bands/clothes/TV shows etc. so they can fit in, and > anyone who dares to be different is criticized. > > Don't get me wrong - I'm not comparing Joni to a couple of disposable pop > sensations. I'm just addressing the concept that Joni's "realized vision" may > not suit some people, even some of her most faithful lifelong admirers, and > that should be OK as opposed to a patronizing "awww".
Of course Travelogue is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and most all of us have Joni albums that we prefer over others and some that we don't like at all. Everyone has a right to their opinion and discussing what we like and don't like is fine. What I have a problem with is people who like to point out how she did it 'wrong' or what she 'should have done'. Someone else posted that it isn't the critics job to force their own vision on a work of art. Their job is to try and evaluate whether or not the artist was successful in creating the vision that the *artist* was aiming for. The critic also should comment on the quality of the execution of the various components - in the case of recorded music, the sound quality, the skill of the playing or singing and the integrity of the whole. I can't understand how anybody who has followed Joni from the beginning of her career can say that any of her records were poorly conceived or put together or represent anything other than her total commitment to the project and her consummate skill as a writer, performer and musician. There is nothing slip-shod about any of her records. Whether you like all of them or not is a different story. But to make snide, glib comments about them and imply that you somehow would have known what *should* have been done seems incredibly egotistical and very annoying, imo. I've trashed artists from time to time, I admit it. But I really do get annoyed with critics who publish in newspapers or magazines or give oral reviews on tv or radio who are much more concerned with 'skewering' and making witty, scathing remarks than they are with actually doing any kind of real analysis or constructive criticism. There are people who use these excuses for reviews to decide whether or not they might see a certain film or buy a certain record. And I think that's a sad state of affairs all the way around. Mark E. in Seattle who would like to submit Rickie Lee Jones name for consideration as a 'poet'
