The Hissing of Summer Lawns

A backing band that sound like Steely Dan noodling over Crosby Stills and Nash make for a surprisingly good sound - warm and loose, jazzy jammy, with a touch of controlled fuzz and something approximating funk - she's getting a little bit wierd with it, incorporating dark synths, dense soundscapes, and lush tropical arrangements. I still don't like her voice though and there's just so much of it.

8/10

Unpopular opinion, but I liked this album more than Blue.

Ehkä vähän hidas vaikkakin taidokas. 3/5

Beautiful but a bit more boring than her other albums... Maybe 4 albums are bit much on this list?

*Cool use of the Moog synth and the lyrics are compelling. I just don't find too many of the songs catchy enough to want to listen to more times.

This was good but her blue album was even better. Love me some Joni Mitchell

Very solid record! I love what she can pull off with these instrumentals, but it feels like Joni ends half her lines on the same drawn-out, sustained note (the closing track is especially egregious). This sameness in delivery drags the record down a lot, imo, though she does have a beautiful voice nonetheless.

Standouts: The Jungle Line • The Hissing of Summer Lawns • Harry's House / Centerpiece

It’s one of those albums that is just so beautifully performed that, despite not having individual songs that I’d pull out and shine a light on beyond the opening a closing track, still come together as a grand and satisfying whole. The only song that I didn’t gel with is The Jungle Line which interrupts the flow a little bit.

It’s stunning that’sJoni Mitchell is such an exceptional artist that this excellent release doesn’t stand amongst her best albums.

Damn!

As we go through this process i worry more than finding new artists i really love it is more a case of reevaluating ‘great’ artists who i only have a limited (one album or a greatest hits) knowledge of.

Unfortunately Joni falls into this category. I like that this album appears to try musically different things from what I’d expect from Joni Mitchell, but i really dont like tracks like the ‘Jungle Line’.

‘Edith and the Kingpin’ feels more safe JM territory and its strengths in being a gentle flowing song unfortunately are why it doesn’t grab me. I just find it a bit dull.

‘Shades of Scarlett conquering’ is a bit more engaging.

Generally this sounds like a Sunday morning album from my childhood, inoffensive background music with people only occasionally aware of its presence while going about their morning

The second Joni Mitchell album the generator has handed out and I don't think my opinion is much different from the first: she has a lovely voice but I'm not sure she's really for me.

Joni Mitchell is very different to what I thought she was as someone who only really remembers Big Yellow Taxi - parts of this reminded me of Fiona Apple (The Jungle Line in particular) and its far weirder that I ever expected. This album passed the time while I made a lamb curry but I can't imagine I'll listen to it again.

2/5

Probably my third or fourth favorite Joni record. "The Jungle Line", in all its experimental beauty, is one of my absolute favorite songs of hers; the title track, "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow", "Shadows and Light", and "In France They Kiss on Main Street" are other big highlights for me as well. Skunk Baxter's guitar work on the latter is damn cool, and as always, Joni's lyrics are stunningly perfect.

4.5/5

Poetic and sublime. 'Sublime' is one of those vagaries that a truly good writer would do well to avoid, so I allow myself to use it. But here I use it to express the feel, mood, attitude... something below the surface, outside of your five senses.

Joni Mitchell floats in, doesn't force her way, you can go with her or not, up to you. If you do go, you are rewarded with that (struggling again to expel the word I want from my tight chest) transcendent place that you want music to take you. Joni Mitchell is extremely generous with that reward, bringing in surprises and poetry and characters and stories like nothing I've heard elsewhere.

I'm not a Joni fan, and this isn't helping to win me over. She still has a tendency to shove way too many lyrics into each song, and for the most part it's just really boring. The music is at least a little weird and interesting on one or two songs, but the overall impression is just a bit meh.

Joni! This kind of looks like the Brian Eno album cover. Is that just what 1974-1975 was like? I like the Canadian vowel raising on "flags". To be honest, 'In France They Kiss on Main Street' is giving SNL's Garth & Kat. And 'The Jungle Line' Regina Spektor. But the rest is more Joni, who I like, but don't love, because it's all a bit too mellow for me (right now?).

I really wanted to like this more but found it pretty lackluster. The jazz and synthesizers were cool but there was a lot of meh moments throughout. It took me days to make it through so really didn't keep my attention well. 2.4/5 -> 2/5

Never listened to Joni Mitchell before, so didn't know what to expect, but wasn't necessarily expecting a fantastic jazz-tinged folk record. Incredibly dense for folk music, but still accessible.

Definitely gonna spin this a few more times to pick out some playlist stuff, but immediately my favorites are In France They Kiss On the Streets and Edith and the Kingpin.

You know an old record is great when you read that reviewers of the time thrashed it for being "too experimental", and then you listen to it and it doesn't really sound particularly experimental because it's influence is heard all over modern music (Bon Iver, Radiohead, Gorillaz). It just sounds like a damn good, classic record. It's funny because the one song they picked out as good, The Jungle Line, is easily the most experimental track on the record, and IMO one of the "weaker" cuts (still good).

Weird pull, but this album has Animal Crossing vibes. Would not be surprised to hear Totaka took influence from this album for the soundtrack to those games, haha.

Her voice has always been like nails on a chalkboard to me, I can’t stand the rhythms she chooses, this was almost physically painful for me to get through. Also, as much as I was trying not to listen too closely was she singing about being a slave on several tracks? WTF

1.5
Joni Mitchell has never clicked for me. At least this album was in a tolerable octave.