The Return of Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell is the musical equivalent of a Transformer. After recording hugely influential acoustic albums like Blue, she hit her commercial peak with the jazzy pop sounds of Court and Spark. Then her commercial viability dwindled as she embarked on a string of experimental projects, including a collaboration with jazz legend Charles Mingus.

Mitchell announced her retirement in 2002. But now she’s sneaking back into the spotlight with Shine. With the exception of a new rendition of her own classic “Big Yellow Taxi,” it’s her first album of new material since Taming the Tiger in 1998. For the deal she joined Paul McCartney on Starbucks’s Hear Music label.

True to its name Shine opens with a luminous instrumental piece called “One Day Last Summer.” The closing track – a slick adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” – is equally impressive.

Unfortunately the eight songs in between are a mixed bag, marred at times by the preachy politics that made parts of Turbulent Indigo and Dog Eat Dog such a slog. The central theme of Shine is the demise of the environment, with additional commentary on “cell phone zombies” and the misdeeds of the Catholic Church.

Shine is at its brightest when Mitchell stops ranting and sticks to the lush Mexican rhythms of “Night of the Iguana” and the dreamy lap steel guitar accompaniment on “This Place.”

Mitchell’s unexpected return to the music business has yielded an uneven and occasionally overbearing album. On the bright side her resurrection gives fans a chance to honor her tenacity, and to decide for themselves if they’d rather listen to her Starbucks brew or vintage recordings like For the Roses and Hejira.