2023 Charity Shop Purchases #37 - Joni Mitchell - Wild Things Run Fast
Another artist to have more than one album in the Debra Haul is Joni Mitchell.
Wild Things Run Fast is her 11th studio album from 1982 on the Geffen label and represents a departure from Jazz to a more accessable 80's pop sound. Indeed it's predecessor the obviously Jazz influenced Mingus is one that I struggle to listen to.
She claims that the album is inspired by hearing music from the likes of Steely Dan, Talking Heads and the Police at a disco in the Caribbean in 1981. It was reasonably well received with reviews in the 3 and 4 out of five region.
A review on Amazon states that Wild Things Run Fast is such an underrated album in the Joni Mitchell catalogue. It rocks, it swings, it grooves, and more importantly the songwriting is still there. Rolling Stone magazine mentions that the word love gets a mention 57 times! With the exception of the first song the songs all pitch in at two to three minutes and all are pretty accessable
AllMusic feel that Mitchell achieved more of a balance between her pop abilities and her jazz aspirations, meanwhile rediscovering a more direct, emotional lyric approach. The result was her best album since the mid-'70s. Somewhat worryingly, however, is that I have seen the frightening term jazz fusion mentioned in places!
There were actually a further two Joni albums in the Haul (Mrs CC is abig fan) - the live Shadows and Light from 1980 and Dreamland (the essential career retrospective personally selected by Joni) from 1980. I am not planning to feature them for now as that would be overkill but I reserve the right to feature them in future along with a CD of music from the film Jean de Florette.
This therefore concludes the first Debra Haul. The second much shorter haul will be along shortly
Joni Mitchell - Wild Things Run Fast
Joni Mitchell - Underneath the Streetlight
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