1. Joni MitchellThe Hissing of Summer Lawns

My first Joni record was Ladies Of The Canyon , I think Hejira came next, and then my friend Amelia put this on a cassette for me when I moved to England for good. I’ve lived here for twenty-six years now. I’m a late bloomer, darling!

With Joni, this album to me is like Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan – a changing point in the artist’s career, not just in where their career is going, but also in their way of writing and production. I find that Joni finds her voice more so than before here. Maybe she started off being highly influenced production-wise by the boys she was hanging out with in the Laurel Canyon, even though she was always her own person. With this she just broke free completely, which is what I love the most about this record: there’s a very real sense of artistic freedom and choice, her going, this is what I am, this is what I’m going to explore from now on, and this is how I’m going to develop. And she did.