Joni Mitchell and Her Ablum "Blue"

There is no doubt that Joni Mitchell can sing. She utilizes her vocals to a capacity that is truly astounding. Her very down to earth sound bleeds through in her 1971 released album “Blue”. Her songs sound very natural yet at times I feel as if she has almost has too many vocal fluctuations! It illustrates the wide range of her voice and her ability to move up and down in tones so fluidly that it sounds like a separate instrument. She has such control over her voice it is astounding! She is able to do things that are truly amazing. She can hit the highest pitched notes and then go to straight low vibrato in the very next measure. While her music all together didn’t appeal to me at first, as I continued to listen, I gained a greater appreciation of what she is able to do with her vocal instrument. While she doesn’t have a ton of different instruments, she still effectively fills the space with her voice.

I think my initial pushback to Mitchell’s music was that her voice (which heavily dominated her songs) sounds very choral and almost too pure. It is almost out of place and is more stunning than anything that she was able to be so successful with such a contrasting sound. Her knack of utilizing a single instrument in the background or simplistic countermelodies simply accentuates the power and depth of her voice. For having polio, she also plays the piano and acoustic guitar pretty well! She is able to supplement her powerful voice with merely these simple countermelodies. This artist is pretty impressive because she doesn’t rely on anybody or anything else to supplement her vocals. The fact is that she doesn’t need to. Even though I would probably not listen to this type of music on a normal basis, I can appreciate the talent that has gone into Mitchell’s songs. Other bands and artists throughout the musical decades have heavily relied on other band members to make harmonies as well as complex series of instruments to help tell their story, but Mitchell steps over this boundary and made significant headway for female vocalists.

Okay, I think that was enough raving about her vocals for one blog. Another reason why her music began to appeal to me more was that the album somewhat snuck up on me. At first I thought of her early songs as rather blasé. By the fourth and fifth song on the album, she was throwing in more complex musical qualities and aspect that built upon each other. I felt that this developed her as an artist and made me slowly see what she was capable of performing. While a lot of artists are capable of making musical arcs in their songs (well, at least of the past that is), Joni Mitchell created a musical arc throughout her entire album. I uncovered this as I continued listening. The first three songs simply have her voice and a basic instrument (such as the acoustic or the piano). Slowly, she spiced up her music with simplistic beats and layered on some harmonies in later songs until the end of the album strikes the listener and all they can do is look back and wonder what they just experienced. While part of this was probably by design, I also think that her voice was able to connect all of the songs into one unifying album. It didn’t sound like a jumbled conglomeration of music, but rather, one elegant piece of work.

Unfortunately, I can’t post the entire album up on this blog so that you can fully experience it. I’ll do my best though. Below are three songs from the album that are from the beginning and middle of the album so that you can see how the songs developed. “All I Want” is a generally calm song in relation to later pieces. “Blue” was so powerful that I couldn’t take notes on it because it was just so full of emotion, power, and passion that it required my full attention. Lastly, “California” exposes a more hip side of Mitchell’s music. Enjoy: