Travelogue

Disc 1
1	Otis and Marlena 3:55
2	Amelia 6:48
3	You Dream Flat Tires 3:48
4	Love 5:41
5	Woodstock 5:57
6	Slouching Towards Bethlehem Based on a Poem by W.B. Yeats 7:11
7	Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune) 5:22
8	The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song) 7:11
9	For the Roses 7:31
10	Trouble Child 5:04
11	God Must Be a Boogie Man 3:58
Disc 2
1	Be Cool 5:10
2	Just Like This Train 5:04
3	Sex Kills 3:57
4	Refuge of the Roads 7:57
5	Hejira 6:49
6	Chinese Café/Unchained Melody 5:43
7	Cherokee Louise 6:02
8	The Dawntreader 5:40
9	The Last Time I Saw Richard 4:59
10	Borderline 6:25
11	The Circle Game 6:50

Barnes & Noble

Travelogue is a testament to artistic maturity. Recasting a wide swath of her signature songs in orchestral settings, Joni Mitchell unearths a new depth of emotion in each, fully justifying their revamped identities. If the wide range and dashing high notes of her youth are no longer part of Mitchell’s vocal arsenal, her superb phrasing and expressive focus more than make up for it. This still-masterful singer-songwriter effortlessly extracts the dramatic riches from song after song, her readings deepened by the passage of time and experience. Although Mitchell’s striking guitar and piano work are not in the equation here, she is hardly without instrumental support. Vince Mendoza’s radiant arrangements for the London Symphony Orchestra, the vivid, just-right work of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and keyboardist Herbie Hancock, and the general musical direction of producer Larry Klein add immeasurably to the success of the project. Although Mitchell has claimed that this will be her final album, the beauties to be found here, and the obvious vitality and creativity she exhibits throughout, make you hope she reconsiders. William Pearl

All Music Guide

According to Joni Mitchell, Travelogue is her final recorded work, and if that is so, it's a detailed exploration of moments in a career that is as dazzling as it is literally uncompromising. Over 22 tracks and two CDs (and as stunning package featuring a plethora of photographs of Mitchell's paintings), Travelogue is a textured and poetic reminiscence, not a reappraisal, of her work -- most of it from the 1970s through the 1990s. A 70-piece orchestra, as well as jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Kenny Wheeler, drummer Brian Blade, bassist Chuck Berghofer, producer Larry Klein, and organist Billy Preston, among others, accompanies her. It's true that Mitchell dabbled in this territory in 2000 on Both Sides Now, but that recording only remotely resembles this one. Cast in this way it is true that this is no easy cruise, but given the nearly 40 years of her sojourn in popular music, Mitchell's work, particularly from the mid-'70s on, has been difficult for many to grasp on first listen and always gives up its considerable rewards, slowly making her records age well over time; they are not disposable as much of the music from her peers is. These completely recast songs cover the entirety of her career, from her debut, Song From a Seagull, to Turbulent Indigo (with certain albums not being represented at all). It's true there aren't high-profile cuts here except for "Woodstock," which is radically reshaped, but it hardly matters. When you hear the ultrahip, be-bopping "God Must Be a Boogie Man," there is an elation without sentimentality; in the scathing and venomous "For the Roses" and "Just Like This Train," the bitterness and aggression in their delivery offers the listener an empathy with Mitchell's anger at the recording industry -- and anyone else who's crossed her. But while there is plenty of swirling darkness amid the strings here, there is also the fulfillment of prophecy; just give a listen to this version of "Sex Kills" that bears its weight in full measure of responsibility and vision. Her voice, aged by years of smoking, is huskier and is, if anything, more lovely, mature, deep in its own element of strength. The restatement of W.B. Yeats, "Slouching Toward Bethlehem," is more stunning now than ever before as is "Hejira." In "The Circle Game" and "Slouching Toward Bethlehem," you hear the ambition in Mitchell's musical direct as she has moved ever closer to the tone poem as a song form. Though it may not be as easy on first listen as Court and Spark, Travelogue will continue to unfold over time and offer, like her best work, decades of mystery and pleasure. Thom Jurek

Entertainment Weekly

The miracle is that [the] symphonic arrangements sometimes place [her] alto in even more intimate climes.