Joni Mitchell's first album of new songs in nine years finds her mourning the sad state of the planet, but with a newfound acceptance that all things have their place in the universe ("bad dreams are good in the great plan," as she puts it here, quoting her young grandson) -- including her own anger and disappointment. Despite the numerous Robinson Jeffers-like call-outs of money/corruption/greed/rage/war and the incivility of humankind, the album does not end up being disheartening, but the opposite. Her voice -- husky with age and chain-smoked American Spirits -- shines with a warrior's strength and defiance even in ragged armor, like Billie Holiday's late recordings. And most wonderfully, Joni is still pushing her music into vital new territory, foregoing the synthesizer-guitar textures of "Taming the Tiger" for piano, horns, percussion, and other warmly organic voices.

She boldly opens the album with an instrumental, which struck me as an ungenerous move on first hearing, but in the context of the rest of the album makes perfect sense on Joni's terms, which are the only terms on which she makes records, bless her. (Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young -- her true peers -- also specialized in weirding out listeners who expected more-of-the-same with each new record.) Every song gets a distinctive orchestration of its own, from the percolating "Hana" -- a portrait of an old movie heroine, an Irish bodhisattva disguised as a traveling maid, who had "a special knack for getting people back on the right track" -- to a playful reprise of "Big Yellow Taxi" rescored like French circus music. "This Place" has particularly sleek and engaging sound, blending lap steel, warm horns, and bright keyboards, with its reference to a neighbor in rural British Columbia who says, "When I get to heaven, if it is not like this, I'll just hop a cloud and I'm coming back down here..."

My favorite track on the album is the final one, "If," which advances the sinuous groove of "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" and "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" and other milestones into new realms. The lyric is paraphrased from a Rudyard Kipling poem, but Joni wrote the most stunning verse:

If you can fill the journey

of a minute

with sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight

then the Earth is yours

and Everything that's in it

but more than that

I know

You'll be alright

You'll be alright.

Fittingly, the title track "Shine" is the purest expression of the essence of this album. After reciting a litany of offenses against the spirit, she insists that the proper response is to "shine your little light" into every corner of your life. It's not polyannic New Agey jive, but more like the alchemy of heavy global lead into spiritual gold: with this song, Joni even transcends her own identity as an angry Cassandra issuing dire warnings to a culture that doesn't want to listen. She's no stranger to Buddhist subtexts in her work -- "Refuge of the Roads" on Hejira was, among other things, a tribute to the vajrayana master Chogyam Trungpa, and "Taming the Tiger" was an allusion to Tibetan meditation practices for quelling the ego's rages. In "Shine," the Buddhist analogue would be Dzogchen, the Great Perfection -- the recognition that everything is just right as it is, even the things that insult the ego and bruise the heart.

We're lucky to be alive on the same dying planet that she is.

What a great tribute to the ideals we all held so fast to during the 60's! Joni is alive and well...rasphy and sultry she still gets her message across. I enjoyed her new CD "Shine" so much I gave it to all my friends whom I love for Christmas! Pour a glass of wine, push "play" and sit back and enjoy every single delightful poem on this venture. The old girl still has a lot to say!To say it is easy listening would be rude, but easy it is ! Jazzy and earthy, the message of conservation and solutions comes thru loud and clear. And I loved it! So will you !

In the opening selection of this c.d., "One Week Last Summer", Joni does an autobiographical introduction. It's been 10 years since her last album. But the creative juices poured out of her, one night at the piano, and what resulted was a song cycle for the week, and an epilogue (Rudyard Kipling's "If", put to Joni's music).

Judging from this song cycle, Joni has had a bad week. She is not happy with you, caretaker of this island Earth. You have done a really cr@ppy job, in fact.

I mean, 40 years ago, you paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Now, apparently, it's a 10-story parking garage. You babble on your cell phone in shopping malls, while condors and whales die as a result of your sludge. You overpopulate this planet, and choose to "solve" the problem with needless wars. You overdevelop, selling precious earth to California. California! Home of that girly-man, Governor Ahnold! No wonder Catholic Priests are doing their dirty, filthy work, doggone their souls! No wonder you support "shock and awe"! No wonder your holy temple is in Vegas!

There's just one problem with all this. This c.d. is licensed to Starbucks. Starbucks? The folks that "Dr. Evil" and "Number One" spoofed in "Austin Powers"? (Well, it all makes sense if your creative juices were fueled by a $4.00 double latte that evening at the piano!)

But with all that said, before you Joni fans get to that neggie button and plaster yours truly, let me say this:

"Night Ride Home" from 1991 was, IMO, one of the most influential pop albums of the last 20 years. "Brilliant" doesn't begin to capsulize it. Musically, this c.d. has the same musical buzz about it as "Night Ride Home." Bob Sheppard (soprano sax) sounds as good on this one as Wayne Shorter did on that one (a controversial statement, perhaps, but I'll stand behind it.) While nothing on this one hits me at the emotional level of "Come in from the Cold", "Cherokee Louise," or "Ray's Dad's Cadillac," it still makes me think and want to listen more.

And it reminds me of why Joni Mitchell is the most influential pop musician on this generation of jazz singers. Erin Bode, Judith Owen, Sara Gazarek and Jackie Allen (to name 4 off the top of my head) owe huge debts to Ms. Mitchell, and all of the rest have their roots to some degree in Joni's music. No wonder Herbie Hancock did a recent tribute to Joni Mitchell. She deserves it.

I'm giving this 4 stars only to emphasize the brilliance of "Night Ride Home." But I do recommend it to all. Even if you like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, you ought to give it a listen. RC

I won't say much at all here except that people who find this album depressing or suggest it is Ms. Mitchell's age that is responsible for fading artistry simply don't get it. This is classic Mitchell, doing what this woman has done her entire life... making provocactive statements with grade A music.

Although a huge Joni Mitchell fan years ago..while in college and years after, I hadn't listened to her music for a long time.. until a recent tribute album came my way. That set the stage for "Shine" which I purchased with pretty much blind faith. This album grabbed me from the first listen. There are some sweet melodies that pack a visceral punch and soften and humanize her message. It is an extremely intimate collection of words and music. It feels optimistic and she sounds grounded and heartfull. The focus of the songs resonates with our times and our age. I listen to this album daily and find it just keeps getting better. I strongly recommend it.