10 Perfect Folk Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
2. Blue - Joni Mitchell (1971)
Joni Mitchell's unique way of crafting melodies has never been so finely exhibited then on Blue. It's an album that feels like a collection of poems or a cappella performances, with music retrospectively set behind them.
Joni Mitchell's soaring vocals ebb and flow like the ocean. Some times they calmly swell, at others they surge and crash. There's such an erratic nature to them that by rights this music shouldn't have become so mainstream - conventional song structuring was out the window. But testimony to Mitchell's allure, they did. The free flowing jazzy nature to the songs are their strength.
As the title might indicate this is a sorrowful and mournful album. Reflections of lost love serve as the overriding theme. But it's not all doom and gloom, California is a carefree love letter to the Golden State. And although My Old Man is mournful at times, it has moments of pure ecstasy, mirroring the ups and downs of a relationship.
This record serves just as well as an insight to Mitchell's life as any autobiography could. For as personal as the lyrics are, however, they have a universal resonance.