I went and re-read my comments to Court And Spark before writing this, because I think a lot of the same ones stand.
Mitchell continues with jazz, and goes further here, I think. Most of the vocal melodies use unexpected intervals (at a guess I’d say quite a few flattened notes), and often become atonal with the backing music which is itself often quite experimental.
This makes it feel more complex, but can also take away from the lyrics themselves, which are mostly about women trapped in a man’s world – the hissing of summer lawns of the title evoking images of sprinklers in a dull suburban world. As before, it’s not as personal nor as directly emotionally affecting as Blue, it feels more like an album of the intellect than the heart.
Jungle Line stood out to me. It features a sample of some Burundi drummers and a heavy Moog bassline to create a dark and disturbing beat, over which Mitchell sings/chants about urban decay and the poetry of Rimbaud. Yeah. You can see what I mean about complex and difficult, but like many complex and difficult things, putting in the work rewards you with more.
Harry’s House/Centrepiece is a relatively long track that changes pace in the middle (presumably the join between the Harry’s House part and the Centrepiece part) via a jazz piano break. Which is nice, but unfortunately any solo jazz piano will now make me think “Nice, but you’re no Keith Jarrett”. It’s a track about a woman trapped in a failing marriage, and is the most straightforward jazz on the album. At other times, for example, the title track (also about a woman trapped in the expectations of society) is more of a soul number.
Because of a headphones issue, I ended up having to listen to this album twice, but it felt like it needed it; once to get used to the style, the second to actually listen to the tunes. Which I think it needed to give a fair opinion. My fair opinion - better than Court and Spark, not as good as Blue.
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