It seems every year I have to have a Joni album that takes up a large portion of my listening, and this year it was Turbulent Indigo. What drew me in initially was her solo performance of “Sex Kills” on Letterman (a highly recommended YouTube video). I love the title, and the guitar feedback over the album cut. This era of like, "adult alternative" (?) production or whatever you might call it is feeling very good to me right now. It's loose and alive, and gives me a similar feeling to Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara. It’s like a salve for your ears (and your soul).
She fixes a particularly steely eye in this one. There's a pervasive sense of weariness in the lyrics that I find inspirational; she's had enough of this shit. And combined with how warm and lived in her voice is, and a sensuality that runs through everything, it feels like the kind of record you can only make after being on earth for 50 years. I love how the harmonies on "Last Chance Lost" sound like a train leaving a station, and I love the title track, about the absurdity and embarrassment of lionizing and sanitizing an artist after their death. “The Sire of Sorrow” has a devastation and desperation to it, well suited to the journey she took us on. Plus a Seal cameo in “How Do You Stop?” Come on…
Jane Inc’.s A RUPTURE A CANYON A BIRTH is out now on Telephone Explosion.
