Both Sides Now

What's this, a new Joni Mitchell album? Well, yes and no.

Both Sides Now is a collection of classic covers, a la George Michael's Songs From The Last Century, as well as two of the singer's original offerings. Mitchell's voice is married with a full orchestra to produce a highly pleasurable album. Her songwriting talent not withstanding, Mitchell is one of the great singers.

It takes not only balls, but also an awesome talent to tackle songs made unforgettable by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. What Mitchell brings to these numbers is that voice.

It would be too easy to dismiss this album as a karaoke experiment by an established artist, (whose last album, Taming The Tiger didn't exactly ignite the charts, though it was critically well recieved), but listening to Mitchell's version of 'Stormy Weather' it's possible to believe that the song was written just for her. Her own offerings sit well among such classics, with the title track, 'Both Sides Now' among the best songs here. And that's high praise indeed.