Joni Mitchell – Ladies of the Canyon (180g LP)

Label WS Rhino WBLP 98617
A fantastic recording. Joni Mitchell’s third album offers a bridge between the artful but sometimes dour meditations of her earlier work and the more mature, confessional revelations of the classics that would follow. Voice and guitar still hew to the pretty filigree of a folk poet, but there’s the giggling rush of rock and roll freedom in “Big Yellow Taxi” and the formal metaphor of her older songs yields to the more impressionistic images of the new ones.
“…Ladies Of The Canyon revealed a more confident singer-songwriter. Still restless and introspective, her music showed more lyrical maturity and rhythmic drive compared to her previous release, the 1969 Grammy award winning Cloudsj. Her delicate vocals seemed to have gained another octave as she reached deeper to convey her feelings about life, love and its complexities…[the album] provided a personal platform on which she could paint her ever-evolving canvas. Conflicted between her desire for love and a need for independence, Mitchell expressed a variety of emotions based on her experiences, including those in Laurel Canyon. Like her earlier work, it’s optimistic – but it’s also significantly more mature in outlook. The hopes and dreams of a generation of California baby boomers may be gone, but we still have this album to listen to. Essential.” – Michael Fremer, analogplanet, Music 10/11, Sound 10/11