6. Joni MitchellBlue
When I used to go busking I learnt a couple of her songs, the classics, and then someone played me ‘Little Green’ and a few others, but I got the album when I was in a studio, The Manor, where The Pale Fountains were doing their first album. One of the girls who worked there had Blue and it just blew me away, the songs, the tuning of the guitars, the piano, it was just different. She’s still one of the best songwriters that I’ve ever come across. She sets the script and she paints the picture in her songs, which I love. I’ve not heard too many of her albums after this one, I heard Hejira, but Blue is a complete album, and a constant for me.
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Georgia, Nitin Sawhney, Sylvie Simmons, Cat Power, Santigold, Colin Newman, Susanna, Pauline Black, How to Dress Well, Lou Rhodes
