Joni Mitchell: Dog Eat Dog - 1985

Well, it was 1985 after all. What did artists do in that period? 

Exactly - they put out albums dominated by synthesisers and programmed drums - The Stones, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Dylan, Genesis, Paul McCartney did it, along with many others I am amazed that Joni Mitchell did too, however. She too became infected, big time. Why oh why? She had big, permed hair too. 

Listen to Good Friends and Fiction as Joni goes all stadium rock with synthy drums, power riffs and echoey male soulful backing vocals. The same applies to Tax Free. Joni now sounds like Pat Benatar, Jennifer Rush or occasionally Chrissie Hynde. Even the cover has her looking like Cyndi Lauper (if indeed it is her). The Three Great Stimulants is a keyboard-driven slow and very mid-eighties number, featuring that classic drum sound from the era. You would never in a million years say this was Joni Mitchell. 

Smokin' (Empty, Try Another) is a minute or so of sonic trickery and pretty pointless but Shiny Toys is quite good albeit in a very eighties sort of way. I can't help but like it though. Lucky Girl is a smoochy number with that wine bar sound so evocative of the era. Dog Eat Dog harks back to earlier times but is couched in full-on eighties backing. I can't help but like the infectious Shiny Toys too, as I also do the beguiling Ethiopia. 

Impossible Dreamer is probably the album's best track, though. 

I guess many long-time Mitchell fans will be appalled by this and I completely understand why, but, taken in context it is actually (surprisingly) an album that I can listen to, albeit while simultaneously acknowledging its inherent weaknesses. It is a purists' nightmare. 


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