Oh dear! I was kind of dreading this. I finally bought it today and am playing disc one as I type this. Her voice isn't in as bad shape as I'd feared (then again I'd imagined a deathly croak, perhaps as an insurance policy, knowing that it couldn't be quite that shot) - but I still find it painful to listen to. Joni's voice sounds parched and exhausted, and I'm not hearing this marvellously expressive instrument that others have been hearing. It's like watching an old and frail person staggering along a cliff, I'm almost holding my breath. And her variations on the melodies remind me of Bowie's David Live album, where he sounded as if he was just doodling around, singing any note that fit except the note used in the original recording - but not, to my ears, in such a way as to add anything to my understanding or experience of the songs.
And the arrangements? Sorry dear friends, but I can't stand them! Slouching Towards Bethlehem is playing now, and I find the arrangement pompous and over-emphatic, almost too literal in places. Mr Mendoza is a master of over-egging the pudding, something I'd clocked with BSN, but there things were relatively restrained (I now realise!). He's really excelled himself here, laying it all on with a trowel, filling all the gaps, everything sounding too busy. Oh lordy, after this I will get out Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and marvel at the exquisite orchestration on Paprika Plains... [Sire of Sorrow - never liked this anyway; arrangement not bad - until the chorus - yuck!] I also have a problem with the collision of voice and arrangements: the frailty of the former juxtaposed with the bombast of the latter results in sheer bathos. I can only add my voice to those who have yearned for a stripped-down Joni offering. I acknowledge that this is only a first listening and all that (I wouldn't bet against it being my last either), but my overwhelming sense is that this album will come to be seen as a folie de grandeur of epic proportions. [For The Roses is excruciating - oh Joni!] If I could wave a Joni-only magic wand and make three wishes for the next album, they would be: 1. Thank Mr Mendoza for his undoubted hard work, care and attention and send him on his way, replacing him with a VERY small band. (And ask him if he'd like to take the VG8 with him :-) 2. Get some help with those poor, ravaged vocal chords of yours - whether or not that means (whisper it) g*ving *p sm*king. As someone on the list very sensibly said, any singer, good or bad, old or young, trained or untrained, can benefit from a singing coach. I would be so delighted to hear evidence of the decline in her voice being arrested, perhaps even some clawing back of ground lost in terms of power and flexibility. 3. Write some songs! Azeem in London, dismayed to find that my main reaction at the end of disc one was relief that it was over. PS I just discovered, when I tried to send this without properly filling in the addressee bit, that there doesn't appear to be anyone on AOL with the username [EMAIL PROTECTED] - what are you waiting for??
