1. Joni MitchellBlue
I mean, how can you not put this record in? I got [my love of Joni] from my mum, and that album in particular had such a profound effect on her generation. She played that record all throughout my childhood, but it suddenly really dawned on me a bit later on the impact that it had on her, she knew every lyric to every song. ‘California’ is one that I really associated with my mum because she always used to sing the lyrics “I caught a plane to Spain / Went to a party down a red dirt road / There were lots of pretty people there / Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue” And I think it really mirrored her life, because she did a lot of travelling and around that time, and I just always hear her singing those lyrics.
A few years back I learnt ‘River’, and I did think maybe I could cover that but it’s just so hard to sing, to do her justice. I think the only person for me who’s really ever encompassed her kind of singing is James Blake when he sings ‘A Case Of You’. I remember going to see James [Blake] at Shepherds Bush Empire very early on in his career when he was still in London, and I took mum along because she really loved his second record, and he played this blinding set, and then he came on for an encore and he sang ‘A Case Of You’ and both of us were in absolute tears. It was very powerful, he’s really done it a lot of justice
