Continuing my exploration of Joni Mitchell’s career, I’ve arrived at her sixth album, 1974’s classic Court and Spark. This remains Mitchell’s most popular album. It reached #1 in her native Canada and #2 in the United States.
This is also the first album where Mitchell utilizes the vocal tic that long turned me off of her music. On several of these tracks, she slides her voice in a way that reminds me of Dory’s whalespeak in Finding Nemo and totally loses me.
My lord, has it really been 27 years since R.E.M. released Monster? I remember being taken aback by the volume and aggression of this album coming on the heels of 1992’s Automatic For the People, but mostly loving the results.
R.E.M. said they wanted to make a loud album after the mostly acoustic Out of Time and Automatic For the People, and Monster certainly fit the bill. Soaked in reverb, this mashup of glam rock and grunge sounds like nothing else in the band’s catalog, for better and worse.
Wilco’s 2007 Sky Blue Sky, the band’s sixth album, is a mellow affair. As such, I should really give it another try. I’m a big fan of Wilco’s first four albums but never got into 2004’s A Ghost is Born for some reason. I bought this one out of habit but didn’t pay much attention to it at the time.
Hearing today’s random SOTD has me regretting that. This is a lovely acoustic song, very reminiscent of Elliott Smith, and exactly the kind of thing I enjoy from Jeff Tweedy and Wilco.
A year after the stunning accomplishment of Blue, Joni Mitchell kept up the pace and released her fifth album in five years, 1972’s For the Roses.
This record marks a shift from the confident confessional pop music of Blue. It’s a much more leisurely and laid back album that at times feels like one long song with many movements, rather than a collection of individual tracks. The album shifts between piano and acoustic guitar, but in service of the same blissful vibe.
When I wrote yesterday that Ladies of the Canyon was my favorite Joni Mitchell album so far, I didn’t realize she released Blue just a year later. So that was a short-lived stint at the top of that particular list.
Blue, released in 1971, is widely considered not just Mitchell’s best album but one of the best albums of all time. Rolling Stone recently placed it at #3 on their list of the 500 greatest albums. It redefined the singer-songwriter genre, inspiring countless artists to this day.
Meet Me In Montauk 