(*) Best Album

Joni Mitchell - "Blue" [1971]
I only very recently discovered this album [why on earth had I never even heard of it before now?!?], and I have to admit - this would be now one of my TOP-FIVE ALBUMS of all time!

"Never has an album been more deserving of its title. Blue is masterful at creating the mood and thought process of someone who is in the situations Mitchell deals with here. This is a good breakup album. Now, that does not mean that it is downbeat and durge. Blue outlines the questioning of direction and the confusion that breakup victims go through. The album affects you greatly on an unconscious level, while still retaining its ability to be an unexplainably good songwriting achievement.
Consider Mitchell's voice. Until recently, I had found her voice to be rather irritating in its rapid lifts and falls. Then I realized that on her albums (this one in particular) she uses those lifts and falls to flow through her, like someone who is in the situations would try for. She essentially captures the spontaneity of different characters...or maybe they're all one character, I'm not sure.
Mitchell is also a tremendous talent with the guitar, using it for the heightened affect of a backdrop for the beautiful lyrics. Her guitar is like her voice-spontaneous. And the album even ends on a hopeful note with "The Last Time I Saw Richard".
Anyway, enough of my gushiness. Blue is a great escape album, taking you to some places you wouldn't like to be and some places you would."