Ladies of the Canyon, Joni Mitchell, 1970, :44
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Beautiful soaring jazzy pop-folk, with Mitchell's vocals the star of the show. Her voice soars and trills, gets raspy and back to luscious again. Her songwriting is no slouch, either. Dylanesque lines like "He stood looking through the lace / At the face on the conquered moon" kept popping up to delight and bemuse me. Clarinet and horns complement her piano to create that ephemeral, jazzy sound that was thought then to be "experimental." Favorite tracks: "Circle Game," "Big Yellow Taxi," "Morning Morgantown."
