Like many musical artists of a certain age, Joni Mitchell has a bit of a problem. As the grande dame of the Woodstock generation, her place in history is secure but it also makes her seem like someone firmly rooted in the past, meaning that few enough people are interested in hearing her perform new material. Travelogue is therefore something of a compromise, an ambitious, double CD collection in which Mitchell reworks 22 of her old songs into a symphonic tour de force. Accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra and a 20-voice choir, familiar standards such as For The Roses and Slouching Towards Bethlehem are transformed into gloriously dramatic musical movements giving them a new sense of urgency without losing their original spirit. The result is an intelligent, sophisticated collection which shows that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks as long as other people are prepared to give them a chance.
