Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon (26/9/19)

Let's go in a completely different direction and listen to Joni Mitchell's Ladies Of The Canyon (that's the one with "big yellow taxi" and "woodstock").

I don't really have anything specific to say about her. Maybe that's because she is an expert songwriter; her songs are perfectly constructed pop-folk. You might not like certain aspects of her vocal stylings, or her tendency to blatantly ignore important punctuation in her vocal phrasing, or the way she avoids resolving leading tones directly, but it's impossible to pretend that she does it by accident: she knows exactly what she's doing and you either like it or you don't.

This album also has some of the coolest sounding vocal overdubs.

I'm not a fan of alternating guitar and piano accompaniment (a similar criticism i had for Fever Tree), because it makes the song order sound perfunctory and directionless, but since this album is clearly a collection of vignettes rather than a story, that argument is moot. I do, however, agree with most critics that Side B is much stronger (dare i say better) than Side A.

Did i mention "big yellow taxi"? Yeah, that's from this album. It might be the only song in existence that uses triangle as the primary accompaniment for the chorus, and it's one of the best songs ever written (lyrically, thematically, structurally, etc.).

Non-sequiter: i never cared before now, but it really is true that the last song on each side is garbage as far as audio quality is concerned. 17-18 minutes seems to be a good stopping point.

Anywho, enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUPdGVF6ESU-MKusqGoa2-ysp1lqi8mId

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