Blue [CD, Import, from US]

   1971年発表、ジョニ・ミッチェルの初期の最高傑作である4作目。全編アコースティック・タッチでありながら、特殊なリズムの乗せ方をするヴォーカルと独自のオープン・チューニングのギターの響きが、フォーク的に単調に終わらない、奥深い世界を形作っている。
   瑞々しい恋心を描く<1>、強烈な自己告白曲<5>、クールで鋭い<7>など。<1><6><9>でのジェイムズ・テイラーの職人芸ギターも見事、というか驚嘆。プリンスのファンも必聴。（麻路稔）

Joni Mitchell would go on from this '71 recording to make more popular, more ambitious, and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian thrush summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it's also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as "All I Want," "Carey," "California," and "A Case of You" work equally well as poetry and pop music. --Steve Stolder

Joni Mitchell would go on from this 1971 recording to make more popular, more ambitious and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian songbird summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it's also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as "All I Want", "Carey", "California" and "A Case of You" work equally well as poetry and pop music. --Steve Stolder