Best Joni Mitchell album?

for me Joni is best divided into certain eras:
best early era: Blue
best mid 70's pop era: Court And Spark
best jazzy avant era: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.
all indispensable and brilliant lps.
....and I like quite a few of the other ones too.

 

All great albums. My own particular favourite is the DCC CD of "Court and Spark".

 

...and don't forget "Miles of Isles"....a beautiful piece of work..... that also set a bench mark for live recordings.

 

It's a great song, and not often recognized as a highlight of her catalog, but I also think it's one of her very best and more than any other song on that record points to her future. With a few changes it would fit in on Hejira or Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.

Travelogue is way underrated. Her '80s material really benefits from being stripped of that (mostly) awful '80s production.

 

Blue

It deserves all the praise it gets.

 

From Song To A Seagull (1968) to Hejira (1976) - everything is perfect for me.
Hejira is my favorite album, i think (??))

I like Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus

Amchitka: The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace - is one of my favorite live albums

 

Listening to "Joni Mitchell The Studio Albums 1968-1979" in sequence.
Have to say "Clouds" has a real gem in the song "Songs to Aging Children Come".
All songs on this album are lyrically well developed, guitar accompaniment excellent, exceptional piece of work this album
Is.

 

It seems that Clouds tends to be pretty underrated, even by Joni fans, for some reason.

My personal favorite is "I Think I Understand". Love that song.

 

I've played "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira" lately.

 

Impossible to decide. After all these years i'm still not sure. I'll put 2 down as favourites right now, Blue and Hejira. Hejira gets played the most on my turntable but I still wouldnt feel comfortable giving that an automatic number 1 spot.

Ask me again in 5 years, might've come to a decision by then

 

I'm always going to say that Blue is her best album. Ask me at 20, ask me at 30, 40, 50, etc. I'm just always going to say the same thing.

 

Hadn't heard it before. Enjoying it now @ work via Spotify.

 

I think it's the weakest of her early records, although it does have two of her best-known early compositions - "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides, Now" - which helps. Starts out strong too, with the haunting "Tin Angel". But I think it's a step down from her debut, even if that record's a bit rawer - little of it is as effective as "Nathan La Franeer" or "I Had A King" or quite as haunting as "Song To A Seagull" or "The Dawntreader" or "The Pirate Of Penance".

Of course, a "weak" Joni Mitchell record would be a career highlight for pretty much anybody else. So...

 

For me, its "Ladies of the Canyon" by a mile. I know "Blue" is considered by many to be her best. But I can never understand why. To me, its overrated.

 

Court & Spark is great, Hissing is a favorite, I love Hejira too. No one can match that run, in my book

Think about it...
1968 - Song to a Seagull
1969 - Clouds
1970 - Ladies of the Canyon
1971 - Blue
1972 - For the Roses
1973/4 - Court and Spark (rel. Jan. 1 1974 but I count it as her '73 album)
1974 - Miles of Aisles
1975 - Hissing of Summer Lawns
1976 - Hejira
1977 - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
1979 - Mingus
1980 - Shadows and Light

Basically an album a year and not a bad one in the bunch. So much artistic growth in such a short amount of time, too. She's something special for sure. A genius, if you ask me.

 

Court and Spark

Runner-up: Hejira

 

I hate to admit this here, but I actually prefer Ladies over Court and Spark.

 

By coincidence, I listened carefully to "Hejira" this morning and concluded I've long underrated it. Fascinating album, one where Mitchell is maturing as an artist and woman. (Not that she needed to mature.)

And I love "Hissing" and "For the Roses" but ...

"Blue."

 

Well, ten years ago I'd have said you're nuts, but I admit Ladies has grown on me. I still see it as a transitional work and a bit of an awkward one vs. the more cohesive Court And Spark, but then there's a certain charm to that as well.

It is a much lighter affair than its immediate predecessor.

 

Hejira and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

 

Her first 10 albums are perfect. One of the greatest stretches of releases ever by any artist. Her work in the '80s doesn't interest me (a combination of production values and her lyrical focus changing) and her '90s-'00s work is good but not at the level of her first 10. So, I'd go:

1. For the Roses: This album saved my life, and I mean that quite literally.
2. Blue: Perfect.
3. Hejira: Mood + lyrics + Jaco
4. Ladies of the Canyon: A bond with my mother
5. The Hissing of Summer Lawns: I played "The Jungle Line" in a music appreciation class in college.
6. Don Juan's Reckless Daughter: Challenging, intense and hugely rewarding.
7. Song to a Seagull: Fresh, vivid.
8. Court and Spark: Yes, just at #8. I love it, but it's never touched me as much as some of these others. That said, Same Situation/People's Parties slays me.
9. Clouds: A good collection of songs, but not as solid as an "album."
10. Mingus: Well worth listening to. Impressionistic.

All are at least an 8/10 for me, if not 9/10. The top 5 are all 10's for me. One of the best songwriters of the 20th century (no need for the "female" qualifiers...she's on the same level as Cohen and Dylan for me).

 

Depends on what criteria you are rating each album on.

 

easy....Blue

 

The run from Ladies to Hejira is astoundingly great and the 2 albums on either side of this just merely great.Find it impossible to split For The Roses and Hejira at the top probably because they are so different.Same for Blue and Hissing Of Summer Lawns at the level below that.