jan Lumbold wrote: ><< On the subject of which period of Joni's career is the best, I would say >she > has different age groups of fans getting into different phases of her > career, all of them equally important. >> .... and I jump to the defence of TTT, which took ages to grow on me, but is quickly becoming a favourite. aside: Hejira is my nr. 1 favourite as well: neither the songwriting or the satisfying coherence as an album can be beat. (My definition of a good album is one that flows like a collection of poems: not necessarily all on the same theme or subject, but coherent enough to make statement (or create a feeling/impression) that is larger than the sum of the parts. Those kinds of albums that you don't feel tempted to hit the CD player's random button because it flows so beautifully are becoming scarcer and scarcer as the CD format is increasingly turn 'albums' into collections of individual songs. Most new CD's these days seem to me lik compilations of new songs these days instead of like coherent works of art: anyway---- back to TTT: I listened to it the other day on a sunny autumn morning (the season down here in South Africa) with golden trees outside the window... and it just struck me how perfectly it holds together as a 'middle-aged' album. The music, the cover paintings: those greens and golden browns and yellows. and the music so amazingly subtle: it seems the emotional range is much narrower than on most other albums, but there are so many emotional colours inside that narrow band much like Hejira, actually (I managed to tune out the lyrics to Lead Balloon and No Apologies - major stumbling blocks to my enjoyment of this album - and the textures on those songs got me too.) I wonder how it will sound when I'm pushing 60? (I'm 30 now) It is not a perfect album like Hejira, but I think it is up there with her best. Kobus Louwrens
