Travelogue

Following in the vein of 2000’s Both Sides Now which featured orchestral backing for Joni’s reinterpretations of a selection of standards, this double CD features reworkings of a cross section of songs from Joni’s back catalogue.

Although most often referred to as a folk singer, Joni Mitchell has been experimenting with musical genres since the early ’70s, on albums like Court And Spark and Miles Of Aisles and her collaborations with jazz legend Charles Mingus. Travelogue gives jazzy big band treatment to some of her most famous songs, going all the way back to ‘The Circle Game’ from 1970’s Ladies Of The Canyon. Her distinctive voice, which has deepened and strengthened with age, is used to particularly good effect on the gospel-flavoured seven-minute epic, ‘Slouching Toward Bethlehem’. There’s a mixture of moods with a darkened pared-down ‘Woodstock’, and tense tracks like ‘Sex Kills’ from 1992’s Turbulent Indigo, with its piercing brass crescendos, offer moments of high drama amongst the lazy hazy luxuriantly chilled out quality of the softer ones.