Both Sides Now

ntertainment Weekly - "...one of America's most respected singer-songwriters rents an orchestra and tries her hand at some standards....It's tough to argue with the spirit of the set, a song cycle tracing the arc of love gone wrong..." - Rating: B NME - 6 out of 10 - "...reeks of bohemian opulence....The arrangements are fluent reconstructions of a bygone sound and under such heavy manners Mitchell sings like a singer for the first time in her career....Nice enough..." Rolling Stone - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[She] sings atop a velvety orchestra, sounding buoyant one minute and betrayed the next....she's telling these stories with a repertoire of gingerly placed inflections and anguished sighs, tools she's always had but never flaunted." Q - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Mitchell moves gracefully through 12 standards....the songs are perfectly executed....singing with thought-provoking resonance." Mojo - "...Vocals wreathed in grey-blue cigarette smoke, she follows the arc of a love affair in 12 exquisitely sequenced episodes....in her maturity those old songs of hers...are closer than ever to the terrain that great performers occupy." JazzTimes - "...Somber, soulful readings of 12 romantic standards....retaining much of her lonely storyteller's charm, keeping her...readings honest and heartfelt while the myriad instruments swoon behind her..." Rolling Stone (3/16/00, p.74) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[She] sings atop a velvety orchestra, sounding buoyant one minute and betrayed the next....she's telling these stories with a repertoire of gingerly placed inflections and anguished sighs, tools she's always had but never flaunted." Entertainment Weekly (2/11/00, p.74) - "...one of America's most respected singer-songwriters rents an orchestra and tries her hand at some standards....It's tough to argue with the spirit of the set, a song cycle tracing the arc of love gone wrong..." - Rating: B Q (4/00, p.93) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Mitchell moves gracefully through 12 standards....the songs are perfectly executed....singing with thought-provoking resonance." JazzTimes (5/00, p.126) - "...Somber, soulful readings of 12 romantic standards....retaining much of her lonely storyteller's charm, keeping her...readings honest and heartfelt while the myriad instruments swoon behind her..." Mojo (Publisher) (3/00, p.102) - "...Vocals wreathed in grey-blue cigarette smoke, she follows the arc of a love affair in 12 exquisitely sequenced episodes....in her maturity those old songs of hers...are closer than ever to the terrain that great performers occupy." NME (Magazine) (3/11/00, p.34) - 6 out of 10 - "...reeks of bohemian opulence....The arrangements are fluent reconstructions of a bygone sound and under such heavy manners Mitchell sings like a singer for the first time in her career....Nice enough..."

oni Mitchell is no stranger to jazz, as evidenced by her work with the legendary bassist and composer Charles Mingus toward the end of his life. On her 20th album, Mitchell forgoes the outer reaches of Mingus's jazz in favour of interpreting more traditional American vocal pop. By interpreting material normally associated with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, the Canadian iconoclast travels down the same road as her old pal Linda Ronstadt. Unlike Ronstadt's mid-'80s three-album foray with Nelson Riddle into the great American standards songbook, Mitchell approaches this project on a more personal and conceptual level, as she traces the arc of a modern romantic relationship.
Backed by the billowy sounds of the London Symphony Orchestra, Mitchell's burnished vocals provide a perfect match as she goes from discovering love ("At Last") to seeing it begin to crumble ("Sometimes I'm Happy") and ultimately collapse ("Stormy Weather"). Jazz greats Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock add some bite to the lush orchestrations. Mitchell weaves a personal touch into the conceptual framework by including a radically altered version of her own "A Case of You" and "Both Sides Now". BOTH SIDES NOW provides a haven for pop-vocal fans whose definition of the genre begins and ends with Sinatra.|