Joni Mitchell

OK, Hear Music's Artist's Choice series is eclectic and has been engaging in previous volumes. This one, assembled by beloved pop iconoclast Joni Mitchell is simply head-scratching. While there are obvious choices in the "music that matters to her" department, some of the more telling ones are Miles Davis' "It Never Entered My Mind," Billie Holiday's "Solitude," Duke Ellington's "Subtle Lament," Debussy's Clair de Lune, and Edith Piaf's "Les Trois Cloches." The obvious ones come from Etta James ("At Last"), Louis Jordan ("Saturday Night Fish Fry"), Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode"), Bob Dylan ("Sweetheart Like You"), Marvin Gaye ("Trouble Man"), and fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen ("Stories of the Street"). But there are others: two picks from Deep Forest, a cut by the New Radicals and one of her own ("Harlem in Havana") that leave the listener wondering what she's going on about -- is there a joke in here somewhere perhaps? Even if she is serious, it makes for uneven listening at best and waters down the otherwise compelling, even beguiling selection. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide