Joni Mitchell
Taming the Tiger

For her last album of original tracks from the previous century, released in 1998, Joni repeats the same cover structure as the previous one. But this time, for the self-portrait, she seeks a more relaxed expression, and the wall on which the work is "hung" is no longer a "Turbulent Indigo," but rather a soothing yellow-green.

In honor of the title "Taming the Tiger," Joni's brushstrokes on canvas outline a rather sunny cat-lady scenario that gracefully slides into old age, but with charm. The lady wants to let us know, in short, that all the drama with her husband/producer/bassist—now ex-husband and ex-producer, but still bassist—has faded over time and mood. The third track, "Love Puts a New Face," makes this quite clear.

The music thus reflects these feelings, or else radiates the protagonist's full and mature social and political awareness, less inclined to delve into the personal compared to her younger years. The scent of jazz spreads inexorably, while acoustic guitar and piano retreat into the mix, almost drowned—often simply absent, since Joni here enjoys playing with electronic keyboards, likely the Synclavier, given the era. The blonde personally and perfectly layers the synthetic textures, which mingle with the jazz musicians playing traditional instruments, in a mix of rare and successful promiscuity. Class reigns supreme, and there's always Shorter's prodigious soprano to have the final say. The melodies twist, elusive yet familiar, especially for those who have followed the Canadian artist's evolution toward refined sounds and themes.

On "Lead Balloon" there's even a back-and-forth of distorted electric rhythm guitars between her and the master of masters, Michael Landau. She even picks up the bass guitar herself on three out of eleven tracks.

In "Apologies" the diva gently takes on her great adopted Country, famously the world's most aggressive, warmongering, hypocritical, materialistic, bigoted, violent, and ruthless "democracy."

In "Face Lift" and in the atmospheric, enchanting finale "Tiger Bones," thanks to the very sparse arrangement, you can particularly appreciate the special (electric) guitar that Roland (I believe) provided Mitchell in those years: a gadget that changes the tuning of individual strings electronically, so you don't have to fiddle with the tuning pegs, or haul around an arsenal of guitars in different tunings. But that's not all: with that gizmo you can assign each string's pan position in the stereo field!

Thus, in the songs mentioned, you can enjoy the high strings on the right, the two middle strings on the left, and the low strings in the center! Che figata! (as my nephew used to say ironically when my sister announced that his unbearable grandmother would be coming over to keep him company...)

This is Joni Mitchell's album with the richest "synthetic" accompaniments, which doesn't take away a gram of warmth or charm from her music—immortal and impossible to clone. May Bach bless her and make her old age ever lighter, given that destiny has made it quite a mess for her, poor thing.