July 2, 2021
Rhino
LP Box
There’s a joy in watching a great artist grow. From their scrappy, early material you can watch them refine their craft and smooth off any rough edges before creating their first masterpieces. The Reprise Albums (1968-1971), a collection compiling the first four studio albums from the inimitable Joni Mitchell offers such an experience. The hippie-folk of her debut Song to a Seagull, benefits from a new mix from Mitchell who famously complained David Crosby’s original mix for the LP sounded like “it was recorded under a Jello bowl.” Her songwriting further blossoms on 1969’s Clouds and 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon, with now-classic tracks like “Chelsea Morning”, “Both Sides, Now”, “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock” taking center stage. This is all leading, of course, to her magnum opus Blue (1971). In her liner notes for the box set Brandi Carlile calls Blue “the greatest album ever made,” and it’s hard to make a case against her. Joni's intricate songwriting and brutally honest lyrics set her apart from the other Laurel Canyon songwriters and made for something that is truly timeless. This box set offers a road map to how she got to that point.