0395. Joni Mitchell
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

So, the last time we heard from Joni Mitchell it was on Blue, some three albums and four years earlier. On this one she still sings in a very cool (as in chilled) and suave tone, but the instrumentation has gotten bigger and the genre-switching and -blending as well. But this makes it seem more dated than Blue as you can tell it's an old album by both the vocabulary used (as in The Boho Dance) and the music played.

Soft jazz-rock just doesn't seem as up to date as it once was, and Shadows And Light, with it's heavy display of Moog, reminds me a lot of the mood music in eighties sci-fi movies, i.e. pretty non-great (but still not really bad).

At times there's a bit of funk / fusion popping up in the background, but still it's got a very easy listening-feel to it, and thus I'm inclined to follow suit with the reviewers att the time and say it's not her best effort.