3. Joni MitchellLadies of the Canyon

I don’t remember the first time I heard this exactly, but I remember the period. My singing teacher at the time, a woman called Solveig Slettahjell, who is a Norwegian jazz singer showed it to me. I think I had heard her Mingus album first and, while it was so much more impressive to sing those songs that were technically challenging, I immediately fell for this album when I heard it.

It was when I was in high school in the mid 90s. It was in that period that I started to read a lot of lyrics, lying on the living room floor listening to music for hours. I moved out of home when I was 16 so I had a lot of time on my own to lie on the floor and listen to these records on big speakers.

I’ve been thinking that Blue is my favourite Joni Mitchell album but I realised that I’ve listened a lot to Ladies of the Canyon as well and that it almost feels like the same album somehow. Her songwriting is very important to me, as it is for many people. It was somehow revolutionary to hear these songs and her style, that sparse instrumentation that was still so direct in its delivery. It’s too hard to pick a favourite off it but maybe ‘The Circle Game’ or ‘Rainy Night House’… Or ‘For Free’…or…yeah…it’s too hard…