8. Joni MitchellSong To A Seagull
Joni Mitchell is the most studied, the most measured, and the least emotional of them all. She has a veneer. Everything is really tuned and everything is very fine. She’s still earthy, she’s very earthy, but she’s also…I guess her emotional range is introspective. I associate Song to a Seagull with the countryside, the home where I was raised, in Sonoma County. Evergreens, and redwoods. A cup of coffee sitting on a ledge, looking out at the rainy day. This to me is a very wintery album, it reminds me of my springboard into independence, and finding and adopting friends that were the exact opposite of what I was raised with. I took this nosedive into a culture that showed me everything that my upbringing denied, and this record is kind of the cake of that whole time period. This is an album for listening. It’s for active engagement. And that’s how I approach making records, I want the listener to spend time with me. When you’re listening to Song To A Seagull, you’re absolutely traversing landscapes that are hers, that she’s created for you, and you can enter into this realm. That’s quite a gift to give.
