Someone gave us this, and I have just finished giving it a good listen.
Joni Mitchell fans will love it, as it mainly features her music - she sings and there is even a great track with Leonard Cohen reciting one of Joni's poems (I think it's hers) - The Jungle Lines.
It is fine sophisticated jazz, with a touch of colour coming from Joni. If this is your kind of scene, then go and listen to it, because it is a very good CD.
However I do have some problems with this kind of music generally, and I find some types of jazz really go for it. It is the silky smooth sophisticated sound, and not just the playing but the recording style - heavily compressed to give a smoothness and ease on the ear.
The problem with perfection, as some famous person said once, is that it's apt to be a tad boring. That is how I feel about too highly refined recordings of music. But it goes further than this. When all the sounds blend in so smoothly, I feel like I am under a pall, from which I am unable to rip through. Like I am asleep in a beautiful dream that is irritating me because I want awakened reality.
This is why I like my house in winter - you can still feel the cold - we don't use those full-house heating systems. There are places which are hotter, and others which are colder. I like reality to break through with a rawness that gabs at me. Thus in my own recordings I like sounds to jump out, and then fade away quietly. I like to feel the skin of the sounds rasping at my flesh.
So that is my primary complaint - I felt like I was being patted to sleep. No sharp edges - no surprised, nothing to grab me and hold me. But extremely beautiful nonetheless. I think the best bit was LC's rendition - the words were great.
