In a bricks-and-mortar store in the USA (not America), I paid $29.98 plus tax. Like everyone else who likes images, I was completely un-prepared for the built-in book. There's a scope to the images, a quiet claim that she's completely anticipated all of the disappointment and hope of the past year. As her own curator, she's found the same disappointment, the same hope, in her own catalog of songs, painted new images that make the old recordings seem like... well they seem like she was foreshadowing this collection.
With finesse she chose background color & texture. I don't think I've yet seen anyone mention the completely unexpected and intimate setting for the paintings. (Hint: Wally Breese, bless his soul, would have recognized the setting.) With characteristic brevity and precision, she added in only enough text make you nod, and anticipate hearing those words in a NEW setting, as she's just shown you the themes updated in a new setting. As Joni did in her best work, she's working with new media. Here, she's in a place to reflect her old themes, especially those of danger and longing for love into new context. She's no longer angry about having the 'hits' on one disc. This collection is Joni, the master, reflecting on her whole catalog. More than 'hits'; more than 'misses'; more than the live albums; more than the PwWaM video. She's now accepted herself in some new way. She seems to be going through a process of going, "Ya know, it's okay to hold these up for exultation. This is very solid work. These themes hold up. These songs hold up. Here, it's as if she writing a post that any of us might, saying >>>>>> Yeah. This work is universal. Yeah, "Muslims hold up Washington." It's true today. Yeah, "You're a mean ol' daddy but (gee whiz) I like you." It's true today. "If they just once glimpsed their groom, then they'd know." It's true today. You're damn straight it's true today. >>>>>> She knows that these themes are reflected in today's news, today's friends, today's newly extended family, and the never-ending process of painting. And yeah, it's okay to put them together because, as Neil Young said from the stage after 911 "everything means something different now." I sense a new pride though. We're not listening to the giddy chanteuse doing songs of love and travel. On top of that, the images are presented in HER OWN context, as if someone was allowed to document an intimate visit to the master's open air studio, catching an accidental glimpse of a hand putting the finishing touches on this one, as the visitor glimpses another canvas, already finished, out of focus and tilted slightly away in the middle ground. Musically, this set also involves exploration of setting. No it isn't just merely changing instrumentation. Vince Mendoza has really done some bold work. For example, the original "The Sire of Sorrow" was a pastel warm-up for this colossal thump in the solar plexus he's devised. He uses many tempi, many different textures. He loves contrast as much as Joni does. I love the dramatic changes in loudness and Joni's sometimes radical new takes in character and delivery. ************** ************** ************** ************** I have to go to bed now. I wish I could type and type and type all night as I did during the BSN tour was on and PazFest was happening. I'm sure there's much more to say. I've barely scratched the surface of discussing the music. I was completely unprepared for this. I thought it was gonna be a total retread. I thought she was farming out the creativity. I thought of it as a sequel. I was mocking this project a year ago, calling it "Both Sides Now Again: Part 2 (The Sequel)" I was wrong. When her writing goes on hold, the painting flowers. Boy howdy, has it ever! Maybe the audience doesn't buy CDs to thumb through the artwork. The old clichi that "Nobody ever left a Broadway musical, humming the scenery" proves false for me this week. Too damn bad. It works for me. It's as successful at achieving its goal as Springsteen's masterful "The Rising" was. Rock on, Joan. Holy cow, Joan. Where does this stuff COME FROM?!?!?!? Lama
