• Joni Mitchell - Clouds / The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. Clouds was her second record. It's a couple of records before her masterpiece, Blue, and miles from her later jazzy records. This is very much a 60's folk record, mostly just her and a guitar. The lyrics are often hippy-flowery, and the music is sometimes has that CSN-ish, not-quite-medieval, vibe. There are good songs, but only a couple rise to the level of her best. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns came six albums later, and is full-on jazz fusion. There are electric guitars, strings, horns, keyboards, synths, drums, backing vocals. There's even a song that has her singing over samples of African drumming overlayed with Moog synth - sounds like Laurie Anderson or Peter Gabriel; very experimental for 1975. The songs are certainly more complex than on Clouds, but they're a lot less catchy. Hooks are hard to find and some songs just drift by with barely a beat - chord changes in the fog, only her voice and lyrics to follow. And that's OK since she's always worth paying attention to. But overall, it's much less accessible than the prior record, Court And Spark, which blended that jazz fusion with enough structure and hooks to keep the music interesting. On the other hand, the songs have more structure and dynamics than the next record, Hejira, but I somehow like Hejira better. Three Raquos each: »»».
• Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color. About half of the songs share the warm and sweet retro R&B flavor that made their previous record so much fun. The rest of the record branches out into somewhat different areas - harder funk, a little more rock, a little softer R&B, etc.. Some of the experiments are fun, some not so much. There are a few good songs, but they'd only be in my second-tier if they were on Girls & Boys. And on this, they're weighed-down by the rest of the record. Oh well, there's always next time. Two raquos: »».

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