Shine (Joni Mitchell Album)
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''Shine'' is the nineteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter
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 ...
, released on September 25, 2007, by Hear Music. It is Mitchell's first album of new material since '' Taming the Tiger'' (1998). In the US, the album sold 40,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 14 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart; this was Mitchell's best peak position in America since '' Hejira'' (1976). ''Shine'' peaked at No. 36 on the UK chart, making it Mitchell's first Top 40 album there since '' Night Ride Home'' (1991). In its first week on sale, ''Shine'' sold around 60,000 copies worldwide. As of February 2008, the album has sold 372,000 copies in the United States.


Background

In 2002, Joni Mitchell famously left the music business. The public first learned that she had returned to writing and recording in October 2006, when she spoke to ''
The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newspap ...
''. In an interview with the newspaper, Mitchell "revealed she's recording her first collection of new songs in nearly a decade" but gave few other details. Four months later, in an interview with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Mitchell said that the album was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good—in the great plan. ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' wrote in February 2007 that the album has "a minimal feel, a sparseness that harks back to her early work," adding that "rest and some good healers" had restored much of the singer's vocal power. Mitchell herself described ''Shine'' as "as serious a work as I've ever done". The album was launched at the Sunshine Theater on Houston Street, New York City, on September 25, 2007, with a film of the Alberta Ballet performing '' The Fiddle and the Drum'', a ballet devised by choreographer Jean Grand-Maître in collaboration with Mitchell that had premiered in
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
on February 8 that year. The ballet uses a selection of Mitchell's songs, including "If I Had a Heart" and "If" from ''Shine'', along with images from her art installation ''Flag Dance'', which are projected as a backdrop. The album cover features a scene from ''The Fiddle and the Drum''. The CD was distributed with a matching blue band around it, not glued on, which obscured the bodies of the male dancers in tights from the general public. ''Shine'' is only the second Joni Mitchell album never to have been distributed by
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...
, the first being '' Night Ride Home'', which was released by
Geffen Records Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...
after the company was sold to MCA.


Reception

''Shine'' has a 77/100 on
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
.


Track listing

# "One Week Last Summer" – 4:59 #*This song won the 2008
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. # "This Place" – 3:54 #*In an interview, Mitchell referred to a "second guitar song nspired whenthey decided to whittle down this mountain behind my sanctuary and sell it to California as gravel for McMansions." # "If I Had a Heart" – 4:04 #* "If I Had a Heart" is a reaction to the state of the environment and what Mitchell called the current "holy war". In February 2007, ''The New York Times'' described the song as "one of the most haunting melodies she has ever written". Of the impetus that inspired her to write the song, Mitchell explained, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. I can't cry about it. In a way I'm inoculated. I've suffered this pain for so long. ...The West has packed the whole world on a runaway train. We are on the road to extincting ourselves as a species." # "Hana" – 3:43 Based on the main character in the 1937 movie "White Banners." # "Bad Dreams" – 5:41 #* "Bad Dreams" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC Radio 2 interview with Amanda Ghost, the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.Come In From the Cold: The Return of Joni Mitchell
BBC Radio 2 programme, March 20, 2007.
#* "Bad Dreams Are Good" lyrics appeared as a poem in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', September 17, 2007. # " Big Yellow Taxi (2007)" – 2:47 #* In March 2007, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' reported that ''Shine'' will feature a "new version" of Mitchell's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single. # "Night of the Iguana" – 4:38 #* Based upon the play '' The Night of the Iguana'' by
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...
. # "Strong and Wrong" – 4:04 # "Shine" – 7:29 #* ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' described this song as "a lush lullaby for the soul." #* Lyric makes reference to the "Reverend Pearson" ( Carlton Pearson). # "If" – 5:32 #* Based on the 19th-century poem If—, by
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
, this song is a
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
-inflected composition.


Personnel

*Joni Mitchell – vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards * Greg Leiszpedal steel guitar * Larry Klein – bass guitar,
double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
* Brian Blade – drums * Bob Sheppard
alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...
and
soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...
* Paulinho Da Costa – percussion on "Hana" *
James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
– acoustic guitar on "Shine"


Charts


References

{{Authority control Joni Mitchell albums 2007 albums Hear Music albums