All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Stephen Stills (guitar).
Recording information: A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Unknown Contributor Role: Joni Mitchell.
Mitchell's second album, like her first, focuses almost exclusively on her acoustic guitar and voice. Though the sound is similar to her debut recording, there's a lot of progression evident in the songwriting here. Mitchell comes across as the quintessential folk poet, highly literate, guardedly emotional, somewhat collegiate, but full of enough talent and idiosyncrasy to pull listeners into her web. "Both Sides Now," a beautiful low-key anthem of disillusionment from which the album's title is derived, became something of an anthem for the Woodstock set. Other, less well-known tunes like "That Song About the Midway" and the mysterious-sounding "Roses Blue" make just as much of an impression. The joyous "Chelsea Morning" would eventually provide President Clinton with a name for his daughter (even if he did think Judy Collins wrote the song).
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Reviews
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I've often said that The Beatles were the geniuses of rock, but it was more of a collective genius with George Martin included. They fed off of each other's individual muse. Joni Mitchell, however, is a genius that stands on her own. Her music and lyrics meld into a seamless, living, breathing whole - taking on a magical essence that's greater than the sum of its parts. And those parts are some of the most brilliantly advanced and artful musings you will find in popular music.
"Clouds" (1969) is a fabulous collection of songs, and one of my favorite albums. It begins with "Tin Angel," about someone (Joni?) with memories of a past love who finds another with a soul as sad as her own. The verses are in a minor mode, so minor-infused they're practically mournful. When she gets to the last line of each chorus, "I found someone to love today," her minor guitar chords still amble, even right through the word "love," but finally resolve to major as she sings "to-day" (and even then there seems to be some hesitation as the chord smiles briefly). The song is pure magic. "Chelsea Morning" awakens us out of the gloom with a burst of sunlight - rhythmically bright, filled with hope and anticipation:
"Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my SENSES
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present TENSES"
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