"Blue", Joni Mitchell’s first masterpiece

Such is its brilliance that calling Blue, Joni Mitchell’s fourth LP and her first true masterpiece, “the greatest break-up album of all time” would still be selling it short. It’s a heartrending collection of songs about love and loss, sure, but it’s also so much more than that. 

Taking inspiration from several love affairs, but particularly the end of her relationship with Graham Nash, the record arrived at a time when both fame and more personal matters were proving too much for the Canadian singer/songwriter to take. Following her separation from Nash, Mitchell escaped the touring bubble of North America to spend time in, among other remote locales, some inhabited caves above Matala in Crete. These modest surroundings provided the backdrop for a series of remarkably candid folk songs, each an unfiltered window into the heart of their author.

But despite all this baggage, Blue is anything but overwrought. It’s pared down, intimate - its ten songs lasting a little over 35 minutes. Stripped of any embellishment or intrusive production, all that you’re left with are a few fleeting piano melodies, the strumming of a guitar or dulcimer, and Mitchell’s utterly bewitching vocals. The arrangements on the record are delicate, and deceptively intricate, but the emotions are painfully raw.

Mitchell’s later records would often lean towards the experimental and unconventional, but Blue remains the purest example of her genius. It’s positively overflowing with heartache, hurt and angst, but Mitchell’s unparalleled ability to take these feelings and distil them into perfectly formed tunes sets it apart. And while there are many artists and albums whose soul-searching, melancholy sounds are worthy of your collection, none of them can match Blue for its articulations on the intoxicating, bittersweet nature of love.