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ARTIST: JONI MITCHELL

ALBUM: SHINE

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Joni Mitchell is the latest top-tier artist to seek refuge at Starbucks' Hear Music. In her first album of new material in nearly 10 years, she returns to the form that made her a star. The set even includes "Big Yellow Taxi (2007)," a reprise of her 1970 hit. Now, Mitchell's lament that "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" is more concrete in its vision of environmental doom. On the best tunes, her somber mood is offset by agile musicianship and inspired arrangements. Challenging time signatures abound; the dynamics provided by mixing and matching saxophone and steel guitar ("This Place"), as well as her own piano playing, are ingenious. Mitchell deftly deploys burbling pan-American percussion to propel "Night of the Iguana" and "Hana." The title song, a seven-minute variation on "This Little Light of Mine," offers hope, as does an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If."

ARTIST: HERBIE HANCOCK

ALBUM: RIVER: THE JONI LETTERS (Verve Records)

As he did on his 2005 pop-meets-jazz "Possibilities," Herbie Hancock invites an array of vocal guests to contribute to his latest, "River: The Joni Letters," an homage to Joni Mitchell. But while the previous CD's exploration across genre borders with the likes of Christina Aguilera and John Mayer was only partially pleasing, here Hancock applies ruminative focus, largely concentrating on Mitchell's oeuvre to sublime effect. Norah Jones ("Court and Spark") and Corinne Bailey Rae ("River") both score, but the muse herself luminously steals the show with an emotive read of her "Tea Leaf Prophecy." Leonard Cohen ends the affair, rendering "The Jungle Line" as a spoken-word piece with Hancock on solo piano. The jazz ante is upped with four instrumentals starring saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a longtime buddy of both Hancock and Mitchell.

ARTIST: KEYSHIA COLE

ALBUM: JUST LIKE YOU (Geffen Records)

Not much has changed musically for Keyshia Cole since her breakthrough 2005 debut, "The Way It Is." Like that set, "Just Like You" is rife with sincere lyrics about troubled relationships paired with soaring vocals and top-notch production. The Scott Storch-produced "Give Me More," on which Cole pleads with her lover to show her affection, embodies piano riffs and vocal arrangements reminiscent of Mary J. Blige's "My Life." "Work It Out," about a relationship that is falling apart, is this set's pinnacle in the same way "Love" was for "The Way It Is." Throughout, Cole leaves behind her staple vibrato, a refreshing move. Still, odd pairings like the Too Short-assisted "Didn't I Tell You" and "Shoulda Let You Go," featuring Cole's rap protege Amina, are weak links and probably could have been left on the cutting-room floor.

ARTIST: JILL SCOTT

ALBUM: THE REAL THING: WORDS & SOUNDS VOL. 3 (Hidden Beach Recordings)

The third volume in Scott's exploration of words and sounds finds the singer-songwriter in a cathartic mood. Reflecting on life in the aftermath of fame and divorce, Scott delivers an unflinchingly honest and nuanced look at who the artist/woman is seven years after her critically acclaimed debut. Each of the 15 tracks reads like an entry in Scott's personal journal. Those jealous of her fame and career are summarily dismissed on the rock-edged "Hate on Me," while she channels old-school hip-hop on the revealing "Epiphany." It's a more assured Scott who ups the sexual quotient on the playful R&B/jazz-fused quickie "Crown Royal." "Vol. 3" exudes the same free-flowing, musically adventurous, no-holds-barred appeal that made Scott click the first time around. And she's still got it.

ARTIST: IRON & WINE

ALBUM: THE SHEPHERD'S DOG (Sub Pop Records)

On "The Shepherd's Dog," Iron & Wine's Sam Beam takes the expansive sound he developed during his collaboration with Calexico and manages to make it even bigger. The result is an album of tremendous fullness: The sound is dense, the lyrics are complex, and the production is top-drawer. For the hip kids who recently decided that Jerry Garcia was a cool dude after all, this album is sure to be held up as an example of the Dead man's influence. The opener, "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car," seems simple and melodic until careful listens reveal a complex arrangement underneath. Elsewhere, "Boy With a Coin" gets upbeat with hand claps, and things get downright strange on the Eastern-sounding "White Tooth Man."

ARTIST: JAGGED EDGE

ALBUM: BABY MAKIN' PROJECT (So So Def/Island Def Jam)

For artists like Jagged Edge, whose careers bank on crafting solid (but not groundbreaking) albums for their core fans, consistency is often confused with complacency. Luckily, the group's super-harmonious ballad formula works well on "Baby Makin' Project." Making it clear that they're not venturing far beyond the bedroom, the quartet sets the mission-to-please mood with songs like "Get This" and "Turn You On." Elsewhere, the 11-track disc offers suave jams like "Say I Love You" and the Ashanti-assisted lead single, "Put a Little Umph in It," which gives a nod to ladies with that magic touch. Six albums deep, JE still isn't immune to cliche come-ons and hit-or-miss one-liners, and the act often goes into harmony overload (there is such a thing). Yet the guys still have a way of making too much of a good thing sound good.

Reuters/Billboard