#86

Joni Mitchell

Blue (1971) 

Wow, hey, hello internet.  Not going to make excuses:  I am an unpaid, undirected aspiring writer with a job and a life.  

I choose to blame indifference towards this album for my long absence.  Yeah.  That's it.  Nothing to do with anything else.

So, Joni Mitchell, what's up?  Pretty girl, nerdy art chick, brilliant songwriter.  Quiet places and songs that seem to be alive, extracted surgically without anesthesia from the flesh of Mid-Century America, and placed in formaldehyde in a bottle marked Baby Boomers (young adulthood).  There is a similarly marked bottle right next to it full of Neil Young songs.

Post-2008, it feels almost quaint to reminisce about the 60s and 70s: the calcifying Cold War, the moon landing, Woodstock, Vietnam, all stuck in the minds of my generation as montages from war movies, period dramas about families falling apart, nostalgic orgasms about HOW AMAZING it all was.  The opening credits of Quantum Leap do a pretty good job of summing it up.

This is how I decide an influential album: whether it makes me think of the opening credits 

of Quantum Leap or not.

But there is a lingering whiff of idealism and naiveté, despite the quality of the songs, that makes

this album a snoozer at times. For all of this album's charms, Joni doesn't say much

other than slice o' life stuff, which wouldn't be a problem except for the patina of self-righteousness

that comes out in the lifestyle she espouses in her lyrics. Part of this is being twentysomething,

I would imagine, but combine this with the knowledge of future Baby Boomer selflove in the 80s

and 90s, and I just can't care.

My twentysomething, ideallovesearching self is madly in love with 1971 Joni Mitchell though.

As an album, yawn and slightly yick, but out of context the singles are fantastic. I want to say to 

clarify, I love this music, but my brain doesn't love Baby Boomers, so until now I haven't really

listened to it since I was 19.

MIX SINGLES 

California

This is what I'm talking about. There is maybe no more tightly dense summation of how I view the world of my parents 

youth than this song.  Plus it is fun and catchy.

Carey

Back when I first began to listen to this album at 19ish, my roommate said this song was the best on the album, and I was like "Nuhuh". I have come 

to agree with him though. It is about going out with an awesome person and has no politics or dated culture lying all over it like clean white linen and

fancy french cologne.

NEXT

#85

Wire

154 (1979)

This is sweet because I love this band but haven't listened much to this album. Sweet. Don't suck, 154. This song doesn't suck at all. Chorus!