Album: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Recorded: 1975
Released: November 1975
Recorded: 1975
Released: November 1975
Songs / length: 10 / 42:34
Joni spent most of 1974 on tour, a performance captured on her first live album Miles of Aisles, and this intense schedule explains the relatively long gap of around two years between The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and her previous studio album, Court & Spark. On that record, Joni had already begun to gravitate more towards jazz, but here she takes an even more radical approach, moving further away from folk and pop and exploring themes of adult love in more depth.
On opener, In France They Kiss On Main Street, the mood is full of nostalgia for a youth spent listening to 50s rock & roll, falling in love and learning the "latest dance craze". This mood is quickly shattered by The Jungle Line, with its sound of African drums and Moog synths, along with highly impressionistic lyrics that link primitive forms of art (Henri Rousseau's paintings) with a society that allows men to sate their desire for women, war and drugs without check.
On the title track, one of my favourites on the album, that hissing on summer lawns is the sound of sprinklers "voicing" their disapproval at a woman who gave up her freedom and independence to become a housewife. Highlights for me are Shades of Scarlett Conquering and Shadows & Light, the latter a philosophical companion piece to folk ballad Sweet Bird, which mixes gospel and synths to create a strange sermon on how fallible men stand in judgment of society.
Many of the songs explore how women must try and make their way in this world, whether as a gangster's moll or Edith Piaf (Edith & The Kingpin), by marrying into wealth (Harry's House - Centerpiece) or by sacrificing their integrity (The Boho Dance). This LP marks the start of a new phase in the style of Joni's songwriting, with many songs more like imagined short stories or abstract sketches rather than snippets from her own life.
In the mid-70s, both Dylan & Mitchell hit their songwriting peaks aged over 30, an anomaly then (and now) given that much of the music industry's focus is on youth and bubblegum pop. Each cleverly carved out a path of artistic growth against the odds in a commercial industry. Joni would end 1975 by joining up with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, along with Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and others. I'm hoping Joni makes an appearance in Scorsese's upcoming documentary of the tour, which is scheduled for release on Netflix in summer 2019.
Highlights: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, Shadows & Light, Harry's House - Centerpiece
Album rating: A
Joni spent most of 1974 on tour, a performance captured on her first live album Miles of Aisles, and this intense schedule explains the relatively long gap of around two years between The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and her previous studio album, Court & Spark. On that record, Joni had already begun to gravitate more towards jazz, but here she takes an even more radical approach, moving further away from folk and pop and exploring themes of adult love in more depth.
On opener, In France They Kiss On Main Street, the mood is full of nostalgia for a youth spent listening to 50s rock & roll, falling in love and learning the "latest dance craze". This mood is quickly shattered by The Jungle Line, with its sound of African drums and Moog synths, along with highly impressionistic lyrics that link primitive forms of art (Henri Rousseau's paintings) with a society that allows men to sate their desire for women, war and drugs without check.
On the title track, one of my favourites on the album, that hissing on summer lawns is the sound of sprinklers "voicing" their disapproval at a woman who gave up her freedom and independence to become a housewife. Highlights for me are Shades of Scarlett Conquering and Shadows & Light, the latter a philosophical companion piece to folk ballad Sweet Bird, which mixes gospel and synths to create a strange sermon on how fallible men stand in judgment of society.
Many of the songs explore how women must try and make their way in this world, whether as a gangster's moll or Edith Piaf (Edith & The Kingpin), by marrying into wealth (Harry's House - Centerpiece) or by sacrificing their integrity (The Boho Dance). This LP marks the start of a new phase in the style of Joni's songwriting, with many songs more like imagined short stories or abstract sketches rather than snippets from her own life.
In the mid-70s, both Dylan & Mitchell hit their songwriting peaks aged over 30, an anomaly then (and now) given that much of the music industry's focus is on youth and bubblegum pop. Each cleverly carved out a path of artistic growth against the odds in a commercial industry. Joni would end 1975 by joining up with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, along with Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and others. I'm hoping Joni makes an appearance in Scorsese's upcoming documentary of the tour, which is scheduled for release on Netflix in summer 2019.
Highlights: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, Shadows & Light, Harry's House - Centerpiece
Album rating: A
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