''Love Has Many Faces'' (subtitled ''A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced'') is a box set by Canadian musician

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

. It was released on November 24, 2014, through

Rhino Entertainment Rhino Entertainment Company (formerly Rhino Records Inc.) is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. History Founded ...

. The box set compiles songs spanning Mitchell's fourth album, ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

'' to her most recent album, '' Shine'' (2007).

Background

Compiled over a period of 18 months, ''Love Has Many Faces'' collects romantically themed songs from Mitchell's back catalogue, organized into four "acts". Included in its packaging is new paintings and poetry by Mitchell. While the set was originally planned as one disc, creating what Mitchell referred to as an "emotional roller coaster", it was eventually expanded to four discs, allowing certain themes to be emphasized and "moods

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sustained". This single-disc compilation was intended to accompany a ballet to be performed in 2014 by the

Alberta Ballet Alberta Ballet (also known as the Alberta Ballet Company) was founded by Muriel Taylor and Dr. Ruth Carse in 1958 and became a professional company in 1966. The company is a resident company of both the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmo ...

, until Mitchell made the decision to expand the project. The set notably does not include any material from Mitchell's first three albums—''

Song to a Seagull ''Song to a Seagull'' (also known as ''Joni Mitchell'') is the debut studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Produced by David Crosby, the album was recorded in early 1968 at Sunset Sound and released in March 1968 by Re ...

'' (1968), ''

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'' (1969), and '' Ladies of the Canyon'' (1970). In an interview with ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', she attributed the exclusion of the latter two albums to a dislike of her vocal performances on them.

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Mark Deming awarded the set four stars out of five. While he felt that some fans may have been disappointed by its emphasis on less-popular and overlooked later material, he also opined that the lesser-known material "play significantly better than they did on her uneven projects of the '80s and '90s", and also stated that the "lyrical strength and bold musical vision that inform he set'smusic are genuinely remarkable on nearly every tune." Writing for ''

Paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

'', Douglas Heselgrave gave the set a rating of 9.5 out of 10 and also commended it for featuring work from the latter part of Mitchell's career, highlighting "Chinese Café/

Unchained Melody "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert ...

", "Love Puts on a New Face" and "Borderline" and praising them as being "as lyrically and musically interesting as anything she recorded during the first decade of her career".

Track listing

Notes

References

{{Joni Mitchell 2014 compilation albums Joni Mitchell compilation albums Reprise Records compilation albums Asylum Records compilation albums Nonesuch Records compilation albums Rhino Entertainment compilation albums