What is the best Joni Mitchell album?
I've been on a tear recently, listening to her music. I think most of "Hejira" is one of the greatest albums ever, but "Fuzzy Sings the Blues" is awful. One awful, horrible song means "Hejira" is not her best album.
Instead, I think it's "Court and Spark". Every single track is great, and the worst track ("Raised on Robbery") is better than many songs of the era. "Down to You", "Free Man i Paris", and "Help Me" - just great.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 21 | August 2, 2024 6:50 PM
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Such a hard decision OP. This summer I was visiting family and listening to lots of Mitchell, but mostly Blue.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 1, 2024 10:07 PM
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I love Court and Spark too-
11 years ago this summer I listened to that album alot - I vividly remember this, and why.
I cannot believe that I was ever 33.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 1, 2024 10:09 PM
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The one Alan Rickman gave Emma Thompson in Love, Actually. You know, the one that made her cry after she realized he was fucking his secretary.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 1, 2024 10:10 PM
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The Hissing of Summer Lawns
by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 1, 2024 10:10 PM
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Court and Spark is phenomenal.
Fans tend to rave the most about Blue and Hejira as well.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 1, 2024 10:12 PM
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[Quote] One awful, horrible song means "Hejira" is not her best album
I do not care for one or two tracks but it’s my 2nd Fave album behind Hissing…. It’s her best album
by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 1, 2024 10:13 PM
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Hissing of Summer Lawns. What else?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 1, 2024 10:23 PM
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You get no argument from me about Court and Spark.
Definitely her best album. So many great songs. My personal favorite of her songs is "Help Me."
by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 1, 2024 10:28 PM
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Almost any of her 1970s album can be argued as her best. She got jazzier and more abstract as the decade progressed, especially due to her session men Jaco Pastorius and Larry Carlton.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 1, 2024 10:34 PM
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I’m one of the very few that likes “Dog Eat Dog” from 1985.
But another of her Geffen releases, “Night Ride Home”, is perfection.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 1, 2024 10:36 PM
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I'm not sentimental about music and am always finding new music, with the old getting pushed out of the picture and forgotten. One of the very few exceptions to this is Joni Mitchell. I've loved her music for close to 50 years now and it never grows old. There's something sharp and striking and unusual about each of her songs, from the first note, and a song I might not have heard in five years or in five days, each for a split-second sounds at once familiar and like something totally new. Itś that quality of always sounding fresh and unexpected that accounts for her popularity with me for all those decades.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | August 1, 2024 10:48 PM
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It's between "Hissing..." and "Court and Spark" for me.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 2, 2024 12:41 AM
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A properly scratched one.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 2, 2024 1:03 AM
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I would say Court and Spark is Joni at her peak when she was a broader audience. 'Help Me' got lots of radio, airplay, as did 'Free Man in Paris.' but my vote always goes to For the Roses. it hits deeper, it's more personal, every song is amazing, and to think how young she was when she put that album together.
and Joni's attempt at putting a top 40 song on Roses is also a comment on the top 40 process itself. David Giffen told her she needed to write something that would get it more airplay, something more commercial. So she wrote 'you turn me on, I'm a radio' as a clapback of sorts .
by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 2, 2024 1:15 AM
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Her best work is the album "Blue".
by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 2, 2024 1:20 AM
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I am not a real fan but I can hear her influence on other artists. Like Prince
by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 2, 2024 2:41 AM
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