My Essential Music: Blue - Joni Mitchell

Many people will say they like Joni Mitchell's later, jazzier stuff and in an attempt to impress you they´ll say that The Hissing of Summer Lawns is her masterpiece and Blue is Joni Mitchell-lite. They may have a point but I know which one I´d rather listen to.

When I first listened to Blue I was rather underwhelmed. It seemed to just past me by, a wave of sound without an undertow to pull me in. I persevered, determined to understand what made this album seminal. Then, one evening, while listening to it on my CD Walkman (remember those!?!), I finally got it. It was like a sudden eureka moment and the intricate charms of the album unveiled themselves to me.

To me, Joni Mitchell is three things. First of all is her lyrics, deceptively simple and disarmingly effective, honest and succinct. She is equally adept at narratives and more stream of conscience style lyrics and she was the first female singer songwriter who showed me that being feminine didn´t equate to being weak and saccharine sweet. Then there´s that voice, peaking, dipping and swooping, plumbing the depths of the words and gleaning their full meaning. Finally, there´s the music. Anyone who has ever been foolish enough to attempt to play one of her songs on the guitar has soon realised the inventiveness of her tunings, the strange eastern quality to her chords which is further emphasised by her use of the dulcimer. Apart from these and the piano the instrumentation is usually sparse. There´s no hint of manipulative, lavish string arrangements. She knew the power of her songs needed no embellishment.

This is one of those rare albums where I don´t ever skip a track, but when pushed against a wall, the title track is my standout. A song so evasive it can be about anything or anyone, never tying you down to one interpretation and ultimately it´s significance for me has evolved over the years. So too has my love of this album, which is a little bit like wine - I warm to it more and more as I get older.