Shine (Joni Mitchell album)
Encyclopedia
Shine is the nineteenth studio album
by Canadian
singer-songwriter
Joni Mitchell
and was released on September 25, 2007 by Starbucks
' Hear Music
. It was the singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in nine years, after 1998's Taming the Tiger
.
Joni Mitchell, who said she was retiring from music several years ago, signed a two-album contract with Starbucks' Hear Music that began with the release of Shine. The 10-track CD "feels like the return of Joni the storyteller," said Ken Lombard, the president of Starbucks Entertainment who also oversees Hear Music.
In the United States, the album sold about 40,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard 200
chart; this was Mitchell's best peak position in America since 1976's Hejira
. Shine also peaked at #36 in the UK charts, making it Mitchell's first Top 40 album in the UK since 1991. In its first week on sale, Shine sold around 60,000 copies worldwide and , it has sold over 170,000 copies in the U.S.A.
Four months later, in an interview with The New York Times
, Mitchell said that the album was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good--in the great plan.'" Though in The New York Times Mitchell said the album's title would either be Strange Birds of Appetite or If, the title Shine was confirmed by her official website on March 15.
The Sunday Times
wrote in February 2007 that the album has "a minimal feel, a sparseness that harks back to her early work," adding that "rest and some good healers" had restored much of the singer's vocal power. Mitchell herself described Shine as "as serious a work as I've ever done."
It is only Mitchell's second album not to have been distributed by Warner Music Group
at any point in time, the first being Night Ride Home
, which was released by ex-WEA affiliate Geffen Records
a year after being sold to MCA Inc., which later became Universal Music Group
.
dance done by the Alberta Ballet, filmed and shown before an audience on September 25 at the Sunshine Theater on Houston Street, NYC. The backdrop of the ballet featured photographs by Joni Mitchell, taken using a camera pointed at a Sony TV screen, whose image was inverted, producing a green and white image. The photographs were exhibited at the Violet Ray Galleryhttp://www.violetraygallery.com/ on the same night as the showing of the film. The cover of Shine features a still image of the dancers in the ballet.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and was released on September 25, 2007 by Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
' Hear Music
Hear Music
Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
. It was the singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in nine years, after 1998's Taming the Tiger
Taming the Tiger
Taming the Tiger is the sixteenth studio album by Joni Mitchell. It was released in 1998 and was widely believed to be the last album of new material Mitchell would ever release . The title refers to the unexpected commercial and critical success of her previous album Turbulent Indigo...
.
Joni Mitchell, who said she was retiring from music several years ago, signed a two-album contract with Starbucks' Hear Music that began with the release of Shine. The 10-track CD "feels like the return of Joni the storyteller," said Ken Lombard, the president of Starbucks Entertainment who also oversees Hear Music.
In the United States, the album sold about 40,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart; this was Mitchell's best peak position in America since 1976's Hejira
Hejira (album)
Hejira is a 1976 folk/rock/jazz album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. The album title is a transliteration of the Arabic word hijra, which means "journey", referring specifically to the prophet Muhammad's and his followers' escape from Mecca to Medina in 622...
. Shine also peaked at #36 in the UK charts, making it Mitchell's first Top 40 album in the UK since 1991. In its first week on sale, Shine sold around 60,000 copies worldwide and , it has sold over 170,000 copies in the U.S.A.
History
In 2002, Joni Mitchell famously left the music business. The public first learned that she had returned to writing and recording in October 2006, when she spoke to The Ottawa Citizen. In an interview with the newspaper, Mitchell "revealed she's recording her first collection of new songs in nearly a decade" but gave few other details.Four months later, in an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Mitchell said that the album was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good--in the great plan.'" Though in The New York Times Mitchell said the album's title would either be Strange Birds of Appetite or If, the title Shine was confirmed by her official website on March 15.
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
wrote in February 2007 that the album has "a minimal feel, a sparseness that harks back to her early work," adding that "rest and some good healers" had restored much of the singer's vocal power. Mitchell herself described Shine as "as serious a work as I've ever done."
It is only Mitchell's second album not to have been distributed by Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
at any point in time, the first being Night Ride Home
Night Ride Home
Night Ride Home is the fourteenth album by Joni Mitchell, released in 1991. It was the last of four albums she recorded for Geffen Records....
, which was released by ex-WEA affiliate Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
a year after being sold to MCA Inc., which later became Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
.
Performance
The album was played live with accompanying choreographed balletBallet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dance done by the Alberta Ballet, filmed and shown before an audience on September 25 at the Sunshine Theater on Houston Street, NYC. The backdrop of the ballet featured photographs by Joni Mitchell, taken using a camera pointed at a Sony TV screen, whose image was inverted, producing a green and white image. The photographs were exhibited at the Violet Ray Galleryhttp://www.violetraygallery.com/ on the same night as the showing of the film. The cover of Shine features a still image of the dancers in the ballet.
Track listing
- "One Week Last Summer" – 4:59
- This song won the 2008 Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
- This song won the 2008 Grammy Award
- "This Place" – 3:54
- In a recent interview, Mitchell referred to a "second guitar song [inspired when] they decided to whittle down this mountain behind my sanctuary and sell it to California as gravel for McMansionMcMansionMcMansion is a pejorative term for a large new house which is judged as pretentious, tasteless, or badly designed for its neighborhood. Alternately, a McMansion is a large house in a sub-division of similarly large houses, which all seem mass produced and lacking distinguishing characteristics, and...
s."
- In a recent interview, Mitchell referred to a "second guitar song [inspired when] they decided to whittle down this mountain behind my sanctuary and sell it to California as gravel for McMansion
- "If I Had a Heart" – 4:04
- "If I Had a Heart, I'd Cry" is a reaction to the state of the environment and what Mitchell called the current "holy war." In February 2007, The New York Times described the song as "one of the most haunting melodies she has ever written." Of the impetus that inspired her to write the song, Mitchell explained, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. I can't cry about it. In a way I'm inoculated. I've suffered this pain for so long. …The West has packed the whole world on a runaway train. We are on the road to extincting ourselves as a species."
- "Hana" – 3:43
- "Bad Dreams" – 5:41
- "Bad Dreams" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC2 radio interview with Amanda GhostAmanda GhostAmanda Ghost is a singer and songwriter from Enfield, North London, England. After an initial period in which she performed as a solo artist, she formed a band which performed under her name, and of which she was the lead singer...
, the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits. - "Bad Dreams Are Good" lyrics appeared as a poem in The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, September 17, 2007.
- "Bad Dreams" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC2 radio interview with Amanda Ghost
- "Big Yellow TaxiBig Yellow Taxi"Big Yellow Taxi" is a song written and originally performed by Joni Mitchell in 1970. It was a big hit in her native Canada as well as Australia and the UK...
(2007)" – 2:47- In March 2007, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported that Shine will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.
- In March 2007, The Guardian
- "Night of the Iguana" – 4:38
- Based upon the play The Night of the IguanaThe Night of the IguanaThe Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American author Tennessee Williams, based on his 1948 short story. The play premiered on Broadway in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name....
by Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
.
- Based upon the play The Night of the Iguana
- "Strong and Wrong" – 4:04
- "Shine" – 7:29
- Toronto Globe and Mail described this song as "a lush lullaby for the soul."
- Lyric makes reference to the "Reverend Pearson" (Carlton PearsonCarlton PearsonCarlton D'Metrius Pearson, DD is an American minister. At one time, he was the pastor of the Higher Dimensions Evangelistic Center, later named it Higher Dimensions Family Church which was one of the largest churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the 1990s, it grew to an average attendance of over...
).
- "If" – 5:32
- This song is based on the poem of the same nameIf—"If—" is a poem written in 1895 by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. It was first published in the "Brother Square Toes" chapter of Rewards and Fairies, Kipling's 1910 collection of short stories and poems...
by Rudyard KiplingRudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
. The jazz-inflected piece features Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
playing piano.
- This song is based on the poem of the same name
Personnel
- Joni Mitchell - vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
- Larry KleinLarry KleinLarry Klein is a music producer, songwriter and bass guitar player, commonly known for being the frequent musical collaborator, and ex-husband, of Joni Mitchell....
- bass - Greg LeiszGreg LeiszGreg Leisz is an American multi-instrumentalist, playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass.- Biography :Leisz was influenced early on by the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, especially pedal steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow...
- pedal steel guitar - Brian BladeBrian BladeBrian Blade in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.-Early years:...
- drums - Bob SheppardBob Sheppard (musician)Bob Sheppard is an American jazz saxophone player.Sheppard has been a studio musician on a wide range of studio, film and television projects, and has also recorded his own albums...
- saxophone - Paulinho Da CostaPaulinho Da CostaPaulinho da Costa is a Brazilian percussionist born in Rio de Janeiro, considered one of the most recorded musicians of modern times. Playing over two hundred percussion instruments, he has participated in thousands of recording sessions, Grammy Award-winning albums, hit songs, soundtracks, radio...
- percussion on "Hana" - James TaylorJames TaylorJames Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
- acoustic guitar on "Shine"
Charts
| Album Charts | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 200 | 14 |
| UK Album Charts | 36 |
| Canadian Album Charts | 13 |
| Australian Album Charts | 71 |
| Norway Album Charts | 10 |
| Sweden Album Charts | 25 |
| French Album Charts | 103 |
| Netherlands Album Charts | 44 |
| Italian Album Charts | 30 |
| Irish Album Charts | 59 |
| Swiss Album Charts | 100 |
| European Top 100 Albums | 56 |