Customer Reviews

Taming the Tiger

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Having listened to all of Joni Mitchell's music avidly throughout the years, I began to think that there was little further she could do to challenge the listener with new ideas and sounds. As the 80's moved into the 90's her offerings were increasingly sparse and with albums like "Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm" and "Night Ride Home"...a bit disapppointing.

I am here to say that those who have panned "Taming the Tiger" or who are somewhat bored by these gently rolling guitar tracks have truly missed something here. "Taming the Tiger" is quite simply wonderous and breathtaking in every respect. A lovely recording.

Joni keeps her voice in the lowest registers here most of the time. The tracks weave in and out of one another effortlessly, with Joni in careful control of the ever-present soft, textural and gently rolling sound. Track for track, this is a project that is every bit as consistent and unique musically and lyrically as "Hejira" was in the mid-70s.

"Stay in Touch" is a standout both in its arrangement and performance...a knockout song! Songs like "Happiness is the Best Facelift" remind the listener of earlier projects like "For the Roses" in the early 70's. The songs all have the same gentle arrangements and most have truly wonderful melodies. Joni's vocals are huskier in recent years, but here this only adds to the intrigue and maturity of this truly visionary work.

If you haven't heard "Taming the Tiger", please listen, if you have heard it and did not have patience with it...please take a second listen. I have never put it on the shelf for long and will always come back to it. Beautiful!

We come to expect much from legends...maybe too much. After all, when you write some of the most socially-conscious and emotionally intimate music of the last thirty-some years, how do you top yourself? Hell, how do you even match yourself? It's a task Joni Mitchell both stumbles and succeeds with on "Taming the Tiger."

Things get off to an intriguing start with the spookily atmospheric "Harlem in Havana," with distorted keyboards and a fluttering soprano sax drawing you in to a charming tale of a couple of suburban innocents attending a racy street fair. Unfortunately the next track disappoints: fans were no doubt eager to hear Joni's own rendition of "Man from Mars," which Joni wrote for the film "Grace of My Heart" but was recorded by vocalist Kristen Vigard for the soundtrack. Vigard's rendition had all the elements of classic Joni: acoustic piano, multiple self-harmonies, etc. But apparently Joni wanted to make sure her own version was distinguishable enough, so she opted for awkward keyboards and no harmonies whatsoever, resulting in the rare occasion that someone else did a better Joni Mitchell record than Mitchell herself.

The ballad "Love Puts on a New Face" is a lovely work that ranks among her best compositions; Mitchell gently cooing "love has many faces" over sax and steel guitar flourishes makes for as warm and intimate a moment as she has ever offered. "Lead Balloon" adds a jolting dose of rock with a killer hook; it's definitely a risk that pays off, even if the out-of-place saxophone should have been omitted (Wayne Shorter is brilliant, yes, but doesn't belong on a rock song).

The lyrical inconsistencies of "No Apologies," which has Mitchell telling a tale of an overseas military scandal in the first verse and then singing of "lawyers and loan sharks laying America to waste" in the chorus make the cut hard to follow and best avoided. But even worse is when the distinction between songs begins to blur: playing through a Roland VG8 adds a hypnotic dimension to her guitar stylings, but using the same effect and keyboard voices on "Stay in Touch," "Face Lift," and the title track make the songs practically identical; worse yet is that they're all in the same key signature and end up taking distinctly different lyrics and putting them to nearly-identical musical backdrops. At least "The Crazy Cries of Love" features some drumming to add a touch of variety, but the others end up sounding like lazy arrangements from someone who is known for the attention she pays to detail where her work is involved. Bitter lyrics on the title track about the state of contemporary music don't help things; true, pop music is often for a less sophisticated audience, but lyrics like "genuine junk food for juveniles" come off as pretentious and arrogant.

Still, this isn't to say "Tiger" isn't a worthwhile purchase...after all, CD players have a Random Play feature for a reason, and this is just as good a candidate as any; separating the tracks certainly help the appreciation process. And even the songs with arrangement and production troubles still have lyrics that deserve to be heard (particularly the touching you-and-I-against-the-world love story of "Face Lift"). But it isn't an easy listen, and while you're bound to find moments to treasure, "Taming the Tiger" will require some clawing through.

It's been fascinating to read the variety of views about this record. I'm on the side of the angels who think it is a stunner. This rates along with Joni's best, a work of great beauty, sonically stunning, lyrically brilliant and emotionally, very very profound.It's the kind of brilliance that is only matched in contemporary popular music by Bob Dylan. Stay in Touch is the most beautiful song but I agree with those who say that this album works best as a whole. I'm staggered by the quality of this woman's work. Thank you Joni Mitchell, you may be right about the music business but please hang on in there, for our sake!

Having listened to all of Joni Mitchell's music avidly throughout the years, I began to think that there was little further even she could do to challenge the listener with new ideas and sounds. As the 80s moved into the 90s her offerings were increasingly sparse and with albums like "Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm" and "Night Ride Home"...a bit disappointing.

I am here to say though that those who have panned "Taming the Tiger" or who are somewhat "bored" by these gentle guitar ballads have truly missed something here. "Taming the Tiger" is quite simply melodically wonderous and sonically breathtaking in every respect. A lovely recording.

Joni keeps her voice in the lowest registers here most of the time. The tracks weave in a out of one another effortlessly, with Joni in careful control of the ubiquitously guitar-rich and gently-rolling sound. Track for track, this is a project that is every bit as consistent and unique musically and lyrically as "Hejira" was in the mid-70s.

"Stay in Touch" is a standout both in its arrangement and performance...a knockout recording! Songs like "Happiness is the Best Facelift" remind the listener of earlier projects like "For the Roses" in the early 70s. The songs all have the same soft arrangements and most have truly wonderful melodies. Joni's vocals are huskier in recent years, but here this only adds to the intrigue and maturity of this truly visionary work.

I have never put "Taming the Tiger" on the shelf for long and will always come back to it. Beautiful!

I just love this album - everything about it is wonderful.

Joni's singing is superb - the set is laden with gentle, subtle, tuneful songs, but listen to the lyrics and the messages are there for us to hear, but not rammed down your throat.

In an album which does not have even an average song - no weak links here - my favourite is "No Apologies". The message of anger at what is happening in the world comes across, but with quiet authority, pedal steel guitar and Joni's unmistakable guitar picking. This is typical - throughout, the musicianship is top-notch, very much understated and enhances her singing.

If you loved "Turbulent Indigo", and thought it would be hard to beat, I urge you to listen to "Taming The Tiger" and you will find that it has exceeded it's predecessor. What is more, the booklet of lyrics and paintings is, as you might expect of Joni, wondrous.

Joni is an icon who, it appears from reports, may stop recording (is she disenchanted?). I suggest that other artists would still learn a great deal from Joni and I hope she continues to grace our CD players with new material for many more years to come.

I'm a big Joni fan - owning most of her albums, favourites "Blue", "For the Roses" and "Hejira". I loved "Turbulent Indigo" and I can see the progression to "Taming the Tiger" but, personally, think this is a patchy offering. Much of my dissapointment is the loss of Joni's great guitar chords - her new computerised guitar orchestra is a toy i hope she'll soon tire of, or at least play more judiciously. It's effective at times but is over-used. The first three tracks are great but after that "No Apologies", "Crazy Cries of Love" and "Face Lift" are the only worthwhile songs. Wayne Shorter is excellent as is the percussion and pedal steel. Much of the rest is slow, soppy stuff by Joni's standards and there's too much preaching - "Lead Balloon" etc. "Stay in Touch" is boring musically and "Tiger Bones" a complete waste of time. Having said that, "Love Puts On A New Face" is superb as well as the jazzy "Crazy Cries of Love", both 5 star songs on a 3 star CD. Joni can, and will, do better.

`Taming the Tiger', written and performed by Joni Mitchell is nowhere near her best album, but listening to it leads me to suggest that Ms. Mitchell has written no uninteresting songs. Twenty-seven years separate this album, released in 1998, from `Blue' released in 1971, the last Mitchell album I reviewed. I compare these two because neither album, unlike `Ladies of the Canyon' and `Court and Spark', have performances which have entered the greater consciousness such as `Woodstock' and `Free Man in Paris'.

While Ms. Mitchell's musical style has changed a bit over these years, her writing style has remained centered on the excellent exploitation of the moment. Mitchell's ability to frame a circumstance in the most imaginatively evocative lyrics is a skill that I simply cannot see in anyone else's writing. That is not to say there are not lots of other good singer / songwriters at work today and from the time Ms. Mitchell took up her occupation. The downside of the imaginative lyrics is the nonmelodic tunes that often sound like musical improvisations around the words of a found poem. This of course is not true, as most of the pieces are backed by excellent studio musicians who for sure had every last note scored for them.

Speaking of framing, there is a bit of a mystery behind the artwork in the album's booklet which is illustrated by ten photographs of ornately framed oil paintings generally done in a neo-impressionistic style, with three featuring Ms. Mitchell's cats and two featuring Ms. Mitchell herself. Joni Mitchell and Robbie Cavolina are credited with art direction, but there is no clue about who actually did the paintings.

I am not up on the current repertoire of major female Jazz vocalists, but I would be very surprised to not find a fair number of Ms. Mitchell's songs on their playlists.

Ms. Mitchell's singing style has not changed much in these 27 years, except that I do sense a hint of European worldweariness in her style. The best modern exemplar of this style is Ute Lemper and if I try hard enough, I can imagine I am hearing Ms. Lemper sing Joni Mitchell. In fact, I am surprised Ms. Lemper does not sing more Mitchell.

TTT really requires repeated listening (as all of Joni's work) in order to appreciate on all levels. True, there are some songs on this one, and some arrangements, that are not among her best. However, it is nonetheless a beautiful album that is sonically stunning and emotionally uplifting. Harlem in Havana is one of Joni's most inventive and intriguing works, and Man from Mars is really an elegant pop song reminiscent of Court & Spark. In a sense this album works its magic as a whole, not song-by-song, and should be listened to that way. Definitely worth a first try and many repeat listenings.

JM sounds better than ever. Music, Lyrics, arrangements; you name it. Hejira, Night ride home and Turbulant Indigo are among my favorites, yet "Taming the tiger' wins them all.
I own a huge collection of Original and rare CD's; In the female Singer songwriter, Folk Rock Jazz composition; it's simple; no other Female comes even close. If you like Pink Floyd in their creative music and songwriting; Joni Mitchell in "Taming the Tiger" surely is in that category; to say the least.
Highly recommended; breathtaking; simply amazing

A lot of people don't like this album because of Joni's experimentation with a synth guitar. I think that it gives the album a very original and urban feeling. Joni's lyrics are as always beautiful, but on this album, it's all about the sound. The whole album is beautiful crafted and shows that a artist at age can still reinvent herself. Start with her older records and after that, you will have a lot of pleasure with this album.