To think that just a year prior Joni Mitchell sounded so powerful - one year later and we have her most personal album. Following her excellent Ladies of the Canyon album, Joni Mitchell took a break from live performing and explored Europe for a vacation. In the midst of this, Mitchell was met with immense heartbreak - her relationship with singer-songwriter Graham Nash had fallen apart in 1970, and her following relationship with James Taylor was experiencing friction by the time this album began recording - Taylor's fame had exploded in 1971 off the back of his Sweet Baby James album. The resulting music on this Mitchell album is emotionally bare, heartbroken, sometimes insecure - a perfect soundtrack to a relationship's end. What is easily one of the most deeply emotional and personal albums ever made, Blue is Joni's most professional, brilliant effort yet - poetic lyricism, confident arrangements, and subtle clean production make this the pinnacle of her ability as an artist.
Lyrically, every song cuts deep - Joni's poetic story-telling and wordplay slices your heart open, and makes sure that you're bleeding by the second side. "Little Green" is one that particularly hit hard, detailing Joni's story of giving her daughter up for adoption so that she can have a better life. It's such a tragic song in nearly every way, made all the more powerful by the musical simplicity of the song consisting of only Joni's guitar playing backing her vocals. Even some of the more upbeat sounding moments, like the beautiful "California," are still tinged in shades of indigo - the song is Joni longing to come home to California, even noting how "it gets so lonely." That song is only one of two upbeat-sounding moments on the album, the other being the album's lead single in "Carey." Both play like a travelogue of her journey across Europe, with the latter written about a person she met in Greece - this Carey is also alluded to in "California" when she sings of a "redneck on a Grecian isle." I could go on about the moving, powerful songwriting, be it the infatuation of "A Case of You" or the pure depression and heartbreak of moments like "River" and the title track - it's all so deep.
There is infinite amount of praise that I can send towards this deeply personal album - everything sounds immaculate. Joni Mitchell's previous albums had some mixed production qualities - her first album, Song to a Seagull, is notably criticized for the amount of echo in David Crosby's production. Starting with her third album, though, she solo produced her work, and this album shows her coming into her own in that department. Everything on this album sounds decisively subtle and deliberate, with every element in its right place for the mood and style that Joni aspired for. It's the small touches, like the sound of the music playing out of an airplane speaker on "This Flight Tonight" that build atmosphere and character in the music. Joni's choice of instruments is so creative and deliberate feeling - the dulcimer is a defining sound of this album, and frankly I think it's all the better for it. I've now just realized that I haven't talked about Mitchell's voice yet - it's fucking amazing. So gentle and fragile; perfectly suited for every moment on this album.
There's so much praise and love that I can show for this album, but I'd run the risk of repeating myself. From start to finish, Mitchell's Blue is the culmination of everything she's done prior to this. It's immaculately produced, deliberate in its style, and so emotionally to the bone that you can taste the marrow. In many ways, it's an intense album, but one that has every right to be. Beautiful, fragile, and heartbreaking. This is Joni Mitchell's magnum opus.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Blue.
Comments
Post a Comment