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By Mark Beech

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Joni Mitchell is bringing out herfirst album of new material in nine years, hitching on theburgeoning protest bandwagon.

She has reversed her 2002 pledge to retire from music.Mitchell quit back then, calling the record industry a“cesspool'' full of “pornographic pigs.''

Fears that the hell in Iraq and environmental catastropheare putting the world at peril have proved too much for Mitchell,now a 63-year-old grandmother.

It's not the first time Mitchell has come back from“retirement.'' We can be grateful that she reconsidered in the1960s after the release of “Both Sides Now.'' She went on toscore successes with such songs as “Woodstock'' and “Big YellowTaxi.''

Now Mitchell joins another of the 20th century's finestsinger-songwriters, the 65-year-old Paul McCartney, on the HearMusic label, owned by Starbucks Corp., the world's largest chainof coffee shops. I wonder which aging warbler it will sign next.

Her CD, “Shine,'' is likable enough. It has moments ofbrilliance that recall the majesty of Mitchell's 1970smasterpieces “Blue,'' “Court and Spark'' and “Hejira.''

It's also shot through with irony and contradictions. Thereis lyrical anger — “Shine on dying soldiers/ In patriotic pain/Shine on mass destruction/ In some God's name!'' and “Men lovewar/ That's what history's for.'' On “Hana,'' we are urged tofight a beast “with tenacious teeth'' — an ogre that could becommercialism, pollution or technology. Only here does thebacking music get urgent, with a propelling drum machine.

Polite Passion

Elsewhere, from the opening instrumental “One Week LastSummer,'' the passion is buried, the music becalmed. This is awell-mannered record, full of hushed harmonies, poignant pianoand slinky sax. It's almost to be slotted into the easy listeningcategory.

Mitchell revisits “Big Yellow Taxi,'' its environmentalconcerns more relevant than ever, though she shies away from aradical reworking by an angry older woman. The main difference isthat her 2007 voice is lower — it has steadily dropped, theresult of decades of cigarette smoking, since the crystal-cutsoprano peaks on the 1968 “Song to a Seagull.''

The girlish laugh is replaced by a world-weary drawl, andit's now even scarier to hear her sing about putting all thetrees in a tree museum. The 1970 song works better than the new“This Place,'' with its over-earnest plea for ecological sense.

As the writer of “Big Yellow Taxi,'' Mitchell has everyright to return to the song, though she is protesting at thehomogeneity of retailing while her recording plays at more than10,000 Starbucks cafes across the world.

Artwork, Tributes

The song, and a version of Rudyard Kipling's “If,'' arepart of a ballet score, “The Fiddle and the Drum,'' that had itsdebut in February in Calgary, the Canadian city where Mitchellonce studied. This year she is also exhibiting her art and wasthe subject of “A Tribute to Joni Mitchell'' (Nonesuch), a CDthat included covers by Prince, James Taylor and Bjork. So muchfor retiring.

Her reflection teeters between hope — in “If'' and “BadDreams'' — and resignation in most of the other numbers. It'smore downbeat than depressing, more haunting than harrowing. “IfI Had a Heart'' is particularly despondent and yet a good trackto download.

The Mitchell recording comes as other singer-songwritersunfurl their acoustic banners. Britain's James Blunt, who alreadyhas sold more than 13 million CDs, has “All the Lost Souls''(WEA/Atlantic), which offers much quiet balladry; P.J. Harvey's“White Chalk'' (Island) is even better, with an ambient edge.

Blunt and Harvey could well take lessons from Mitchell onhow to do rainy-day reveries. All these CDs are ideal for 4 a.m.introspection and that quiet hour when maybe you just fancy acigarette and a classic novel for company. Joni is guaranteed notto cause a ripple on the surface of your Starbucks cappuccino.

“Shine'' is released today on Hear Music in the U.S. Itcame out yesterday in the U.K. The record is being sold in musicstores and at Starbucks cafes. All the CDs mentioned are pricedaround $12.98, or 8.99 pounds. Download prices vary acrossservices.

(Mark Beech writes for Bloomberg News. The opinionsexpressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this review:Mark Beech in London at