By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

“Shine” (Hear Music), the luminous new album by Joni Mitchell, has arrived to delight and dazzle fans, old and new.

“Shine” is Mitchell’s first studio album of mostly new material (“Big Yellow Taxi” makes a reappearance) since “Taming the Tiger,” released almost nine years ago to the day. Time has not dulled her razor-sharp insight and the inclusion of “Big Yellow Taxi (2007)” is the musical equivalent of “I told you so”—they did pave paradise and put up a parking lot, after all. At once nostalgic and forward thinking, “Shine” features an endless array of the elements that we have come to love and expect from Joni. Her piano and guitar work, among other instrumentation, is simply flawless. Opening track, the instrumental “One Week Last Summer,” for example, sounds like it would have fit in on any of her albums, from “For The Roses” forward. The alto sax on a few tracks may not belong to Wayne Shorter, but Bob Sheppard does a brilliant job of providing the brass. Pedal steel legend Greg Leisz, who also played on “…Tiger,” returns, along with Mitchell’s longtime drummer jazz star Brian Blade. Additionally, old friend James Taylor can even be found providing some light.

Resplendent in its rage, “Shine” also sheds new light on reoccurring themes in Mitchell’s work and world. She has been singing about crows for many years, and they appear in two songs here, “This Place” and “Strong and Wrong.” As unavoidable and annoying as crows, cellphones also get called out on both “Bad Dreams” and the title track. As she previously did with a William Butler Yeats poem, Mitchell looks to Rudyard Kipling for inspiration and sets his timely “If” to music. The “if” word plays a major role in the poignant political diatribe “If I Had a Heart,” whose chorus “If I had a heart/I’d cry,” is a Mitchell-style comment on our times. She has been incorporating electronic instrumentation into her songs for a number of years, making particularly good use of it on  “Hana” The combined wordplay and infectious rhythm of “Night of the Iguana” also makes it irresistible. Simply put, “Shine” is radiant.

Six years have passed between the release of Suzanne Vega’s previous album (which dealt primarily with her divorce from musician/producer Mitchell Froom) and her new one, the splendid  “Beauty & Crime” (Blue Note), a musical love letter to New York. Most notable among the events that have occurred during the time between albums is, of course, the attacks on 9/11. A New Yorker since childhood, Vega’s connection to the city is indisputable and the affection she feels for it is on glorious display throughout this marvelous disc. From the voyage down Memory Lane that is “Zephyr & I” to the Lower East Side homage of “Ludlow Street” to the pageantry of “New York is a Woman,” the delicate “Edith Wharton’s Figurines” and the timely “Anniversary,” Vega is reverential. A spirit of fun can also be found in “Frank & Ava” and “Unbound.”

Patti Scialfa is someone else closely associated with NYC. In fact, her 2004 sophomore album, issued 11 years after her debut disc, was titled “23rd Street Lullaby.” Four years later, she has dealt us “Play it as it Lays” (Columbia), in which the geography is not limited to New York, as you can hear on album opener “Looking For Elvis,” in which she sings about the doing the titular action “down a Memphis road.” Scialfa, who has a vocal quality reminiscent of Ronnie Spector, stirs up a girl-group vibe on “Like Any Woman Would.” Female race car driver Shirley Muldowney, once immortalized on film by Bonnie Bedelia in “Heart Like a Wheel,” is feted in song by Scialfa on “Run, Run Run” and the title track, which shares its name with a Joan Didion novel, is a definite high point.

Like Scialfa, Linda Thompson took a long time between putting out her first and second albums (17 years), but has returned after only five with her new one “Versatile Heart” (Rounder). Easily her most accessible and consistently strong recording, Thompson finds herself in inspiring company. Her gifted son Teddy, with whom she co-wrote a number of the songs, also plays on a number of songs. Martha Wainwright (sister of Rufus, daughter of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon), can be heard on “The Way I Love You.” Jenni Muldaur (daughter of Maria and Geoff), is there on the marvelous title track. The very popular Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons), joins Thompson on the Rufus Wainwright-penned and suitably named “Beauty,” which name-checks Michael Jackson among other things. Also not to be missed are the torchy twang of “Do Your Best for Rock ‘n Roll,” a cover of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s anti-war “Day After Tomorrow,” “Give Me A Sad Song,” and “Go Home.”

In the four years between the release of her covers disc “Coverage” and her latest album “Wild Hope” (Firm Music), Mandy Moore focused on her acting career, appearing in several films and also the sitcom “Scrubs.” A legitimate artist, closer in her talent range to Christina Aguilera than frauds such as Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears, Moore continues her artistic growth on what is her most mature and accomplished effort to date. She co-wrote all 12 songs, some with hot names such as Lori McKenna (the subtly country “Most of Me,” “Can’t You Just Adore Her” and “Latest Mistake”), Rachael Yamagata (“Ladies’ Choice”), Chantal Kreviazuk (“Gardenia”) and the duo The Weepies (“Extraordinary,” “All Good Things,” “Few Days Down” and the title tune), among others.

Mandy Moore performs at Park West, 322 W. Armitage, on Sept. 29.

Suzanne Vega performs at Park West, 322 W. Armitage, on Sept. 30.