Wow. Robert Christgau, once the man who reviewed every record under the sun for the Village Voice, absolutely devastates Joni Mitchell’s new record in Rolling Stone.
Yet I’m sure he would agree that this in no way diminishes Joni Mitchell’s better songs. (Mitchell’s work continues to shine — just hear what Prince does with her classic "A Case of You," if you have any doubts — it’s available on iTunes, but not Amazon, as far as I can tell.)
And it’s not just the songs, not just the performances, not just the art, but now she has mastered an entirely new form of expression, the website. The clarity and depth of her site is the best of any performer that I have seen, with listings of every known appearance, hundreds of reviews, good, bad, and indifferent, her paintings, discussions — take a look.
Here’s a favorite painting of her’s, The Mountain Loves the Sea, in which she balanced these two great forces with whimsical power…
Kit Stolz 
Joni Mitchell is God and it’s just becoming clearer with each passing year. I stopped listening to her in the early 1980s, along with a lot of other people, but partnered up with somebody who owns everything she’d ever recorded. And it turns out that it’s ALL great, and her music is aging beautifully.
So pardon the English, but to hell with Mr. Christgau. I haven’t heard the new music, but I’m sure it’s worthwhile on some level. Joni’s the closest North America has to a Living White Cultural Treasure (a la Japan).
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Hey, let’s not get carried away, Joni Mitchell is way beyond good, but she’s not God. That position has been taken…by Neil Young.
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Sexist pig.
Okay, let’s agree to call both of them two of the many Faces of God.
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