Court and Spark

Court and Spark

Court and Spark

Track Listings
 
1. Court and Spark
2. Help Me
3. Free Man in Paris
4. People's Parties
5. Same Situation
6. Car on a Hill
7. Down to You
8. Just Like This Train
9. Raised on Robbery
10. Trouble Child
11. Twisted

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Painter-turned-folksinger Joni Mitchell had slipped stark saxophone solos into her prior album, For the Roses, and her singing had often hinted at a capacity for bluesier fare than her guitar- and piano-framed confessional ballads offered. None of those hints prepared fans for this sudden, expansive shift toward a much larger canvas--a sleeker, orchestrated pop style pulsing with jazz elements. Court & Spark found Mitchell casting aside her earth mother affectations and revealing herself as the thoroughly modern, thoroughly complicated woman she is; the songs sustained familiar preoccupations with relationships but replaced courtly settings and naturalistic imagery with recognizably modern locales. Deeply romantic, constantly questioning, classic tracks like the title song, "Help Me," "Free Man in Paris," "Same Situation," and "Raised on Robbery" display a more liberated Mitchell, ready to rumble with unbridled electric guitars (guest Robbie Robertson on "...Robbery"), even willing to poke fun at her own oh-so-sensitive rep with a hip cover of Annie Ross's hilarious "Twisted." --Sam Sutherland

Court and Spark,Joni Mitchell,Elektra / Wea,Album Rock,Canada,Folk-Rock,Folk/Country Rock,Pop,Popular Music,Rock,Singer/Songwriter
Court and Spark
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Love Tracks......
  • The other great Joni record
  • "Star maker machinery"
  • Court... has the spark
  • (Almost) unfettered and alive
Court and Spark
Joni Mitchell
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

CanadaCanada | North America | International | Styles | Music
Singer-SongwritersSinger-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ContemporaryContemporary | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. Blue
  2. Ladies of the Canyon
  3. Clouds
  4. For the Roses
  5. Hejira

Accessories:
  1. Dead Reckoning

ASIN: B000002GXL
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

  1. Court And Spark
  2. Help Me
  3. Free Man In Paris
  4. People's Parties
  5. The Same Situation
  6. Car On A Hill
  7. Down To You
  8. Just Like This Train
  9. Raised On Robbery
  10. Trouble Child
  11. Twisted

Amazon.com essential recording

Painter-turned-folksinger Joni Mitchell had slipped stark saxophone solos into her prior album, For the Roses, and her singing had often hinted at a capacity for bluesier fare than her guitar- and piano-framed confessional ballads offered. None of those hints prepared fans for this sudden, expansive shift toward a much larger canvas--a sleeker, orchestrated pop style pulsing with jazz elements. Court & Spark found Mitchell casting aside her earth mother affectations and revealing herself as the thoroughly modern, thoroughly complicated woman she is; the songs sustained familiar preoccupations with relationships but replaced courtly settings and naturalistic imagery with recognizably modern locales. Deeply romantic, constantly questioning, classic tracks like the title song, "Help Me," "Free Man in Paris," "Same Situation," and "Raised on Robbery" display a more liberated Mitchell, ready to rumble with unbridled electric guitars (guest Robbie Robertson on "...Robbery"), even willing to poke fun at her own oh-so-sensitive rep with a hip cover of Annie Ross's hilarious "Twisted." --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Love Tracks.............2007-07-04

This was a present to me for my birthday in 19...I just forget...1975, 80, 90?
Might be good for a listen this July 4th thinking here about what we find to complete us in life, our choices, our diversions, our battles, where we stand up and for what we do what we do, ultimately...with a life.
It all comes down to this.
Celebration of freedom on our 4th, I think of this album.

Young, drawing, painting, feeling, living life it fit every feeling I had at that time in my 25,30 year old life. Standing alone looking at heaven on earth, for surely nature doesn't do it better, I remember listening once on a Walkman player with ear things driving me to distortion trying to walk the trail early morning out to Point Lobos, CA. I was also in some of the worst physical pain of my life which now seems relative, my spine, with no idea the reason for the hurt that took ten more years of being told it was imagined, over the real debilitating degenerative spinal condition it actually was.....This a walk about self belief and external disapproval and the collision of something so playfully contained in Joni Mitchell's tune from this album...about one's sanity. Walking wondering how my faults could generate this as my 'other' half and medical doc were so happily stating as "obvious". Reached the limits of self loathing and external disharmony for the waste of time they are. As you move through this trail it opens onto ocean pitched as suspended above on a precipice. I stood on the edge. With that aquamarine pool far down the rocks below, this music probably stopped me from jumping, my hoping to reach the perfection of arresting time in the just then. Visual external perfection weighted against internal incapacity to meet the moment with joy, hit me. Then. Inadequate by definitions.
And this trip on my birthday this weekend brought back both songs and those silences in the past to grapple. It passed from my daily memory in days bleeding through my fingers as does water and maybe, too, passing flesh like lit kerosene...the contradictions of love, living, fire, your speck of stardust flashing, suffering...it's here in her words. Burning, quenching. Our Dualities.

And that hand she offered me and held out meant something. Then and now listening again...today. It did stop me from flying out to see those cormorants that day, to realize this was just a path I traveled/weathered. Could and would take others. Could. Would. Will. And such a lonvely path it can be sometimes. Her singing just gave me a sense there might be someone that had an understanding what life might really just be. It was a Beautiful present.
I don't think 'laughing it all away' was missed in my life then. It brought me this musical seed...growing inside.. my own Tree of Knowledge....the processing of teaching in South Central, poverty, others suffering at the hands of those unconcerned and greedy, illnesses, pain, relating, loving, failing, being reduced to clown,my loss of a baby, loss of innocent place in this world had me on my knees....actually on my back...and I remember standing listening that day long ago all the way through rather frozen....and days just passed on until I was listening again in times with my children...growing....trade-offs bargained in situations constructing many lead walls all through our personal and societal worlds..opening windows in my heart, ... I was falling in love with the notion I could live making, doing, in my own spaces and sing to a girl losing loves, finding loves, turning to work with a group of children no one ever saw, no one ever saw.... Turning around in the whirl of time passing and melodies blowing through your heart. She sang the lust, the desire, the truth of waiting for stolen moments, of wanting, of needing to push forward into meaning something, doing something of value independent of a self that burns all it touches with petty insignificance, waves I sat and watched in Malibu.
Why does it come as shock to know you have no one? She sings...
Another dream over the damn. My right to be human going over too, over the fall.....when I went in the waves at Malibu I nearly drown. In so far I was sucked under. Still trying to surface... her soul reading mine, ours. Seen.


I must have played this album a million times. Until in my dull repetitive way it blossomed into my being with that oboe playing, "It all comes down to you." And it does. Riddled now with aches, pains, limits,idiotic trivial delusions, truths and contradictions I listen to this and develop the most intense kaleidoscopic Alice vision of my days.Returning via mirror to the repelling external truths. We blow most of life.

When I do go, play this and that'll be wonderful, and know I mostly acted thinking of "Help Me"......it centered in my heart. The things contained in man's , my soul, reaching for another and love, and I turned to reach for a way to meaning, to do something with some value. Risk making meanings and loving our world. Risk it. Your mistakes will always outweigh everything. It's the human condition...but we have to try. For something.
It brought me to teach children...longing had to be contained. Caged. Knowing her call for freedom for bird, kitten, fish, all creatures great and loved mattered more...matters more .....comes inside.....slips away....floats like a melody through my soul.

Joni Mitchell on this album brought into my life a flash of enlightenment. And in my passions the fruit of loves, living ....danced....cried out.

I want to quote songs, favorites, pieces of genius. I also want to feel the words fly around in my mind so I think I will go just listen and recommend it with some fresh July strawberry-raspberry rhubarb pie.

Savor your freedoms, it was bought at a price no money changer can refund.

5 out of 5 stars The other great Joni record.......2007-05-15

Between this and Blue, I'd have a tough time picking my desert-island Joni album. It's nicely balanced, and the guitar work is stellar as always, and the songs are catchy and/or lovely. "Twisted" is a wonderful work of vocal acrobatics (with guest stars Cheech and Chong!). Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars "Star maker machinery".......2007-04-20

Now here is something startling. After the perhaps somewhat awkward ramblings and disjointedness of For the Roses (1972), Joni hits us with this - an instantly appealing pop album. Admittedly, there was a clue beforehand with her first US radio hit, aptly named "You Turn Me On (I'm A Radio)" but if the rest of For The Roses was something to go by (musically and thematically) it seemed she would drift off on a wave of free floating obscurity. That however, would come a little later. Court & Spark become a big US hit and deservedly so.

The title track is of Joni's most seductive, matched by lower range vocals and trancelike piano playing. It seems to tell the tale of a woman who falls in love with a busker, only to let him go out of fear of commitment. This `love versus freedom' struggle echoes earlier song "Cactus Tree" from Song To A Seagull (1968). "Help Me" exemplifies a similar theme in a jazzy pop number fashion and would become Joni's biggest hit single.

Many of the other songs touch on love/freedom/compromise scenarios in some sense. The character in the jazz-rock ruckus "Free Man In Paris" wants to be exactly that, then there is longing to be at ease in some way in the downplayed original version of "People's Parties" which (I think) would appear in finer form on her live album Miles of Aisles (1974). The piano lead into "The Same Situation" is more than a nice touch though. There is a nice piano led instrumental part too, on the epic "Down To You" in which Joni begins with these great lines:

"Everything comes and goes / Marked by lovers and styles of clothes"

Court & Spark seems to be aching to that sentiment because on one level it seems very timeless and on another, very much of the 70's. Joni sings of `Woman with that teased- up kind of hair" in the playful "Just Like This Train" though with "Raised On Robbery" she goes all out 50's in probably her most rockin' tune ever about a prostitute trying to make "A little money..." Things jazz up to the max with the final
two tracks; "Trouble Child" is full of Joni's exotic guitar painting a portrait of a loser in life who knows what he has to do but seems to have an inability to do it - very poetic, if a little downbeat. "Twisted" is Joni's first ever cover version and she does it with a lot of humour, and style scatting like her life depended on it.

Although brass heavy, Court & Spark is on the right side of jazz to be pop, while neither being too pop to be disposable even if belonging partly to the 70's. While "Twisted" will not appeal to everyone, songs such as "Help Me" and "Car On A Hill" are sure to be favourites of old and new fans alike. Often touted as her best, Court & Spark is engaging and at least in that running.

4 out of 5 stars Court... has the spark.......2007-04-17

An excellent album by Ms. Mitchell, containing three of her biggest songs (Help Me, Free Man in Paris, Raised on Robbery) in the company of equally engaging material. The last track, Twisted, presages Joni's shift into jazz and, depending on your taste, either detracts from enhances the album or detracts from it (I'm of the latter opinion). Still, this is a magnificent album and perhaps her crowning achievement.

3 out of 5 stars (Almost) unfettered and alive.......2007-04-10

There's many MANY many people who feel this one is IT, Joni Mitchell full of glamour and wit, rocking and wooing - and altering the 70's.

I'm not one of those people.

I believe Court and Spark, essential as it was for building up JM's clout, stands as a crowd-pleasing stop on the road to the BIG muse. But, it falls short - the session sharpies play too unctuously.

We all know the (lovely) radio hits, and there's little to add to the zillions of words aired. These are enchanting tunes - shrewd, warm and full of good chops. Vocals soar unpredictably like autumn breezes.

What I would like to add is "Trouble Child," rockin' yet noir, might be one of JM's first jaw-dropping masterpieces. Listen to it again (then spin the fine Travelogue version). What a dark topic (could be rehab for bipolar disorder), burnished with benevolent humanism.

Also notable: "Down To You" (which, alas, did not receive a Travelogue reincarnation) is a savvy, serpentine melody and heartfelt lyrical runimation buoyed by keen, clean orchestration - an early experiment of merit on the way to those incredible Paprika Plains.

And yeh, sure, "Twisted" is twisted; and "Raised on Robbery" rampages like Fear of Flying.

Court & Spark
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Court & Spark

    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B000GW88WY
    Release Date: 2006-10-03
    Witch Season
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Simply put: amazing
    • For lovers of fine sounds and soulful music
    • a new transcendant form of American music
    • Great album
    • Beautiful.
    Witch Season
    The Court & Spark
    Manufacturer: Absolutely Kosher
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Alt-Country & AmericanaAlt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music
    Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B00029LOFE
    Release Date: 2004-08-17

    Tracks:

    1. Suffolk Down Upon the Night
    2. Out on the Water
    3. Denver Annie
    4. Steeplechasing
    5. Sundowner, You
    6. St. John the Evangelist
    7. Witch Season
    8. Wandering Tattler
    9. With the Horseshoe King
    10. Hallelujah I
    11. Swimming Endlessly
    12. Titov Sang the Blues

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Simply put: amazing.......2007-05-18

    You could waste a lot of time trying to describe what this record does and does not sound like, and in fact some of the previous reviews have done a better job of that than I could have, so I will simply add this: this is probably one of the five best records in my collection. It's worth whatever they charge here. Pay for fast shipping.

    5 out of 5 stars For lovers of fine sounds and soulful music.......2005-12-05

    Did M. C. Taylor, the lead singer/writer of Court and Spark, really say Gram Parsons is overrated? (See Charles Hayes' review.) I'd say Parsons is more overworshipped than overrated, but I can see why someone with the tastes evident in this recording might have reservations about Parsons. Parsons deserves the credit he gets for helping turn a segment of rock in a new direction, and he was rough and soulful in a winning way that's still fresh. Court and Spark has those qualities too, but any roughness is accompanied by a finely tuned sense of detail and crystal clear production that's foreign to anything Parsons did. There's an openness to the production that allows each sound to be appreciated, savored.

    These are people who love sound as sound, and who have the taste to bring together sounds that are unexpected in a way that complements the basic soulfulness of the music. In this respect they remind me of the later Beatles. (I wonder if Taylor thinks the Beatles are overrated.) Where the heart of the Beatles was more rock, Court and Spark is definitely more ... uh oh--a Donny and Marie song just came into my head. Well, C & S is firmly rooted in country music.

    This is a work of art in a way that's unusual for popular music. The attention to detail is exquisite, but the heart is all there too.

    5 out of 5 stars a new transcendant form of American music.......2004-12-11

    I first heard C&S in 2002 listening to an NPR review of their "Bless You" album. I was instantly hooked, and since then they have been the music I most want to play and the kind I most identify with. Every weekend I'd find solace playing their singular blend of American roots music and electronic impressionism that forms for me the perfect balance of figurative and abstract music. This is an alt-country with the accent on the alt. The twang sounds utterly authentic, drawn from the music native to this soil since the Indians were booted off of it, but never jingoistic and riff-reliant like so much so called Country or Country & Western music is. Folks have compared their music to that of Gram Parsons, but as lead songwriter/singer M.C. Taylor has the courage to affirm, Parsons' music is good but kind of overrated. Listening to the C&S is to be treated to an almost symphonic representation of the post-Gold Rush American sensibility, with sonic impressions of the (western) American landscape that brilliantly mirror the terrain of the inner psyche. The music ventures into the dark lands, into dissonant, blighted passes, but always brings you back, in its own sweet time, to the rich California sunlight via the dry, warm, near-cracking voice of Taylor, singing compelling yet dusky lyrics in tones as assuring as those of the old men of the mountain. The pedal steel guitar whimpers, stokes, and sweeps emotively, lighting up a dark canvas like the headlights on a distance car brightening a lonely desert night. Playing music so exquisitely layered,this band has earned the twang it renders with not a hint of self-conscious hoke that almost every other so-called country artist has. C&S has managed to reproduce what seems to be the true pace of time, at times excruciatingly but redeedingly slow, like a flower opening to the sun, or a heart opening up to a lover. The band will not be rushed for no one, not for quick recogniation of a hit single, not for any musical fashion. This is the real deal, folks. At times the delicate quality of the music harkened me back to the music of the late-discovered British 60s folksinger Nick Drake, whose wispy strum and strings-aided music was crafted, in part, by Joe Boyd of Witch Season Productions. I gather that there is some allusion to Drake's music in the titling of this album. For me, though, all five of their records represent a continuous work that stretches the frontiers of American music, and does so with tremendous melodic grace and musical and psychical integrity. This is only the beginning of what I'll be writing about them; I hope to write a full-length magazine piece on the band in the coming months. Get this band's records! (The LP of "Bless You" is phenomenal!)

    4 out of 5 stars Great album.......2004-11-19

    While not as dense and expirimental as their last full length, Witch Season is still a highly gratifying listen. C&S still go for mood first and foremost. Many of the songs like Sundowner and Denver Annie sound more romantic than anything they've ever done, while With the Horseshoe King and Swimming Endlessly is rather melancholy. The sound on the album is full and repeat listens will unearth a wealth of subtle diverse instrumentation.

    5 out of 5 stars Beautiful........2004-09-01

    The Court and Spark's newest, Witch Season, is a fabulously mood-altering experience. Instead of being a strictly melancholy voice like other contemporaries of their genre (such as Handsome Family, Lambchop, My Morning Jacket), they choose to present their unique blend of Burrito Bros. country and modern indie pop/americana/no depression-ish with an overarching sense of wonder.

    Sure, the occasional hint of dark enters the mix, but the general feel of the album is one of any given week- there will be ups, and there will be downs. It's all part of a well rounded life, and it makes for a very well-balanced release.

    The production is flawless, with lead singer M.C. Taylor's soothing voice meshing seasmlessly into the twang-lounge backdrop of the instrumental track. This is not hard-hitting rock; it's an exercise in exploring the boundaries of country and lounge jazz.

    Hopefully Amazon will soon have samples to peruse. This is definitely my first must-have album of the fall.
    Hearts
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Expectation exceeded
    Hearts
    The Court & Spark
    Manufacturer: Absolutely Kosher
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Alt-Country & AmericanaAlt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B000F8DB9Y
    Release Date: 2006-05-02

    Tracks:

    1. Let's Get High
    2. We Were All Uptown Rulers
    3. Birmingham To Blackhorse Road We Wandered
    4. The Oyster Is A Wealthy Beast
    5. Capaldi
    6. A Milk White Flag
    7. Berliners
    8. Smoke Snigals
    9. Your Mother Was The Lightning
    10. High Life
    11. Gatesnakes
    12. The Ballad Of Horselover Fat

    Amazon.com

    On their fourth album, atmospheric art-country act Court & Spark further refine their moody twang. More than ever, they sound tasteful and literate, like some dream collaboration between M. Ward and Calexico, or American Music Club with Morricone. At times it's a tad predictable, almost too erudite, but when your formula works this well, why change it? "Ballad of Horselover Fat" pays homage to the protagonist of Philip K. Dick's heady novel Valis, while the gorgeous and lazy "We Were All Uptown Rulers" references the Meters and instantly sounds like some song you've heard before on the AM radio, though it's not. The band really stretches out on the album's sweet, genre-recombinant instrumentals: "The Oyster Is A Wealthy Beast" matches Van Dyke Parks-y banjo plocks with an organ that sounds lifted from the Rushmore soundtrack and these smooth, graceful cello lines. Like the rest of the album, it totally works, almost despite itself. --Mike McGonigal

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Expectation exceeded.......2006-05-14

    Court & Spark's previous recordings set a high bar for Hearts, and those listeners like myself who regard this group highly will be pleasantly surprised that Hearts is exceeds those high expectations. On Bless You and Witch Season, the two discs preceding Hearts; two aspects of Court & Spark's music made an immediate impression, both obvious at first listen, but wonderfully elusive when listened to carefully. The golden "country" tone of M.C. Taylor's singing is a real voice, so unlike the affected drag-king sound of so-called male contemporary country singers that a close listen will intoxicate with its sensuality. The vocal sound has the melancholic edge of a singer who knows about love and loss. Taylor is often superficially compared to Gram Parsons; the only real comparison in the country genre is George Jones. But you might as well apprach his muse from the angle of the lute songs of John Dowland. Taylor is a wide-awake musician who cannot be neatly pigeon-holed. In one sense the beautiful country-esque drawl is, like a lot of the aspects of Court & Spark compositions, a signifier for a more complicated reality and a paradox. I get the feeling that Taylor is a bit of a magician, and is himself pleased and amazed to spin dross into gold. In doing so he brings a sense of unexpected courage in facing the challenge of creating new music in what promises to be a tough century. The survival of a sweet vulnerability in the face of overwhelming odds has always been at the core of country music, and that, I think, is what Taylor evokes. (I'll return to this review shortly, with a consideration of the 2nd impressive quality in this recording; the group.)
    Bless You
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Wonderful
    • Going on three weeks...
    • stop
    • Weakening Sunlight
    • ALONG WITH WILCO
    Bless You
    The Court & Spark
    Manufacturer: Absolutely Kosher
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B00005NKI8
    Release Date: 2001-10-23

    Tracks:

    1. To See The Fires
    2. Rooster Mountain
    3. National Lights
    4. The Lone Palm
    5. Fireworks
    6. A.M. Radio
    7. Marlborough Sound
    8. Pearly Gates
    9. Fade Out To Little Arrow
    10. In A Sugarpine Bed

    Amazon.com

    Not since Wilco emerged from Uncle Tupelo has such a skillful group of what are, essentially, indie kids added so ambitiously to the alt-country canon. Bless You taps into the spirit of 1950s Nashville and 1960s and '70s Los Angeles to create an album that's soulful and earnest, with crystal-clear production and an Appalachian sound that eludes most No Depression-era artists. Like the foremost of their musical brethren--Gillian Welch, Varnaline, Neko Case, etc.--the Court & Spark have also been legitimated by the support of a bona fide country-rock pioneer; in this case it's former Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother Gene Parsons, who joins the string section on three of the band's recorded songs. Nonetheless, Bless You finds the quartet neglecting the playfulness and joy that characterize songs by predecessors and peers alike. Through all the album's beautiful waltzes and shuffles, wispy vibratos and stirring harmonies, the romantic wistfulness it affects so consistently eventually becomes its one flaw. But with an upbeat tune or two, or for a melancholy mood or rainy day, Bless You would be perfect. --Sarah A. Sternau

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Wonderful.......2004-11-19

    This is my favorit C&S album. Rooster Mountain is what dragged me into the album, because I heard it a few times and was humming it for weeks. I bought it and realized the full scope of the album. Sure it's close to "alt-country," but they're not trying to stick to some genre. There's a lot of rock and roll thrown in, soulful lyrics and singing, plus A.M. Radio has a plodding psychedelic feel. This is a recommended first-buy, then check out M.C. Taylor and Scot Hirsch's side project, Boxharp.

    5 out of 5 stars Going on three weeks..........2004-08-05

    If you buy only one Court and Spark, buy Bless You. I purchased Ventura Whites (well acclaimed) and the newer Dead Diamond river, and while each have some strong content, they don't come very close to Bless You. Sorry no words on the sound - see other reviews - but I really like it. Haven't parted with a daily dose for about three weeks now...

    1 out of 5 stars stop.......2003-03-14

    alt country is no longer that, evidenced in the editorial review comparing it(C&S) to 60's and 70's Los Angeles. or maybe it is alt country in that it sounds nada like 50's nashville.

    4 out of 5 stars Weakening Sunlight.......2002-11-09

    Ah!, the sound of weakening sunlight - the perfect soundtrack for the end of the day - any day. This is bruised orchestral folk from the premier division, a magnificent set of songs to shatter your heart and elevate your soul. Bless you

    5 out of 5 stars ALONG WITH WILCO.......2002-09-17

    along with wilco these guys are new shining stars on the muisc horizon. with amazing songs,lilting melodies, deep emotions and great vocals (when pat campbell joins in it has a exene/john doe vibe). this is a must own for fans of alt-country, actually its a must own for music lovers period.
    Court and Spark
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Court and Spark
      Joni Mitchell
      Manufacturer: Dcc Compact Classics
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      CanadaCanada | North America | International | Styles | Music
      Singer-SongwritersSinger-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
      ContemporaryContemporary | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
      Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
      Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
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      ASIN: B000008IJ4
      Release Date: 1992-08-19

      Tracks:

      1. Court and Spark
      2. Help Me
      3. Free Man in Paris
      4. People's Parties
      5. Same Situation
      6. Car on a Hill
      7. Down to You
      8. Just Like This Train
      9. Raised on Robbery
      10. Trouble Child
      11. Twisted
      Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark
      Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
      • (4.5 stars) Jazzy Joni begins here
      Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark
      Joni Mitchell
      Manufacturer: Asylum
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      Singer-SongwritersSinger-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
      ContemporaryContemporary | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
      Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
      ASIN: B000MD316K

      Product Description

      1. Court and Spark~~~2. Help Me~~~3. Free Man in Paris~~~4. People's Parties~~~5. Same Situation~~~6. Car On A Hill~~~7. Down To You~~~8. Just Like This Train~~~9. Raised On Robbery~~~10. Trouble Child~~~11. Twisted.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars (4.5 stars) Jazzy Joni begins here.......2007-07-13

      This is where Joni's jazz/folk sound really started to take control. Yes, the previous For the Roses hinted at the change, but also contained some elements of Blue. The transition was made, and the result is wonderful. Melodically this is probably her best, and the jazzy chord progression and constant use of a horn section add all kinds of interest. Her lyrics are at her peak: the love songs breathe new life into a tired theme (big hit Help Me; title track, one of the few songs here that hints at the past; Same Situation). She also works in a sarcastic, sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor that's greatly appreciated: yeah, it's easy to enjoy stuff like the "hooker song" Raised on Robbery (easily her hardest rocker that I've heard); the jazzy Twisted; and the cynical record industry jab Free Man in Paris without the witty lyrics, but they sure help. Plus she makes some very original lyrical observations (take People's Parties, containing the memorable lyric "Laughing and crying/it's the same release"). My personal favorite is none of these, but the complex suite Down To You; the bitter character assassination lyrics are brilliant, and the musical passage is fairly hard to follow and truly worth the effort. A few of these songs are lesser: Car on the Hill would be worthless if not for the horn part; Just Like This Train is catchy, but that's about it. However, Court and Spark is one of Joni's finer albums. Those interested in the jazzier sound should also seek out Hejira and The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
      Ventura Whites
      Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
      • best
      Ventura Whites
      The Court and Spark
      Manufacturer: Absolutely Kosher
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
      Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
      Alt-Country & AmericanaAlt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
      Country RockCountry Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
      Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
      ASIN: B00004XPRX
      Release Date: 2001-07-17

      Tracks:

      1. Saturn City
      2. Ghost Of Sigma 14B
      3. Doctor, The Veranda
      4. Dunedin, Dunedin
      5. A Joyful Dispel
      6. Burning Bridges
      7. Ventura Whites
      8. Sugar Pie In Bed

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars best.......2001-08-25

      This is the great debue record from legendary san francisco band, the court and spark. If you ever get a chance to see them live, then you know how amazing they are. The music is dreamy, slide guitar driven, and wonderful. Buy this one, but definately check out their newest release Bless You as well- it has byrd and burrito brother gene parsons on it.
      Absolutely Kosher Records: Kvelling.
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Absolutely Kosher Records: Kvelling.
        Absolutely Kosher , The Extra Glenns , Eltro , Xiu Xiu , Pinback , Franklin Bruno , The Court and Spark , The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up , The Swords Project , and The Mountain Goats
        Manufacturer: Absolutely Kosher Records
        ProductGroup: Music
        Binding: Audio CD

        Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
        ASIN: B000U8XQEY

        Product Description

        Tracks: 1. The Extra Glenns - "Going to Marakesh" 2. Eltro - "long.flat.red" 3. Xiu Xiu - "Poe Poe" 4. Pinback - "Manchuria" 5. Franklin Bruno - "A Cat May Look at a Queen" 6. The Court and Spark - "Fireworks" 7. The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up - "Shark Repellent" 8. Eltro - "Niagara" 9. The Swords Project - "The New Assassin" 10. The Mountain Goats - "Onions" 11. The Places - "Ode to the Exhausted" 12. Optiganally Yours - "Held" 13. Franklin Bruno - "Nickname Stuck" 14. Telegraph Melts - "Septembrist" 15. Thingy - "Ketchup Sandwich" 16. Jukeboxer - "Even Little Stunts" 17. Two Guys - "Ode to Masturbation" 18. Jack Hayter - "Another Girl, Another Planet". Limited Edition Compilation CD.
        Court and Spark
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Court and Spark
          Joni Mitchell
          Manufacturer: Asylum
          ProductGroup: Music
          Binding: Audio CD

          CanadaCanada | North America | International | Styles | Music
          Singer-SongwritersSinger-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
          ContemporaryContemporary | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
          Folk RockFolk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
          GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
          Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
          PopPop | Imports | Stores | Music
          ASIN: B00005HEBY
          Release Date: 1974-01-01

          Tracks:

          1. Court and Spark
          2. Help Me
          3. Free Man in Paris
          4. People's Parties
          5. Same Situation
          6. Car on a Hill
          7. Down to You
          8. Just Like This Train
          9. Raised on Robbery
          10. Trouble Child
          11. Twisted

          Music Review:

          1. Cris and Holly
          2. Dancer With Bruised Knees
          3. Driving North
          4. Dying Star
          5. Finest [Enhanced] [Import]
          6. Five Stories
          7. Flesh and Bone
          8. For You Only
          9. Friends of Mine
          10. Glorious Fool [Import]

          Music Review

          music review

          Recommended Music:

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          Handel: Concerti Op.6 Nos. 5-8

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          Fitmix: Running

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          Even Now

          Giordano - Il Re · Mese mariano / Ciofi · Rivenq · Renato Palumbo

          Great [Import]

          Doble Vida [Limited Edition] [Import]

          Dig My Mood

          H.a.N.a.B.I. [CD-single] [Import]

          Feierabend [Import]

          Georg Friedrich Haendel: Trois Cantates Pour Soprano Et Instruments

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