Oh not another one! (I hear you say!) This album should be heard by people who have never heard of Joni and have never heard her songs.
I have to say that I love this album. I can see why some of the songs were chosen - favourites; fun to have transposed to full orchestra; if they didn't get it with my arrangements, they must get it now! type thing... What this album does for the songs is that it takes it out of the realm of Joni as she is known to 90percent of the worlds populous and elevates them to the realm of standards. I can imagine a lot more people now will go,' Wow I've never heard this song before, I must cover it..'. Some songs will be seen as true greats in this form like 'Sire Of Sorrow' or 'Slouching'. You have to approach this album like any other Joni album, like you have never heard her before. If you have never heard these songs, or Joni, this album would be one of the greats just because of the diversity of songs that are there. The travelling images, the love the loss, it's all there, it all makes you think 'WOW where have these songs been all my life', like they should. I mean, her voice now is where most female rock singers' voices are 10 or 20 years younger than her. If you'd never heard of Joni, you would think,' here's a woman with depth, clarity, range (of subject) and balls' No one would comment on her lack of vocal range. I turn this cd on and just get sent away to islands, highways, lonely streets, past lovers, present loves, God, the atmosphere, the present situation, America. It's the strength of the songs and her delivery that hold this album. Mr Mendoza does an excellent job of painting the music around her words, taking the landscape and putting it into sound form. I love Wayne Shorter's dragonfly in The Circle Game, all his descriptions are spot on. It's the way she just goes 'I want a dragonfly Wayne, can you do it?' and there he puts it. He doesn't play lines like most sax players would, he creates feelings, delivers images. The combination of Mendoza landscape, Joni's words and Shorter's sparks is just amazing. Yes, I want her no guitar, I want her touring, I want I want I want. This is perfect BIG music. This is fineness put to music. --------------------------------- With Yahoo! Mail you can get a bigger mailbox -- choose a size that fits your needs
