Joni Mitchell: Court & Spark (LP)

If Joni Mitchell is considered one of the most important artists of the last century, and this album is also praised as one of her best (alongside "Blue" and "Hejira"), what superlative remains for this work? Masterpiece, milestone, stroke of genius? Well, Joni Mitchell surprised us here with a poppy and accessible appeal, without really becoming mainstream or selling out her ideals. No wonder this album was also her biggest commercial success. The stripped-down folk gives way here to a very confident and full-sounding, more rock-oriented production. Their trademarks, astute and multi-layered lyrics, the fun of intricate song structures that flirt with jazz shimmer through at every turn despite the stylistic shift. After the still restrained instrumentation of the title track, which with its melancholic mood would fit well on one of the earlier albums, "Help Me" is so smoothly catchy that it's hard to get it out of your head. "People's Parties" and even more so the light-footed "Twisted" then point the way towards later jazz excursions. "Raised On Robbery" really rocks. The highlight of the album is certainly the driving "Car On The Hill", Joni Mitchell has probably never come closer to the ideal of the perfect pop song. The themes remain classic Mitchell territory: all the complexity that happens between two people that happens between two people. As always, her voice tells these stories in a very personal and touching way. So this album hovers between the radical intimacy of "Blue" and the spacious sparseness of "Hejira". A timeless classic that sounds so young and fresh and harks back to a time when you could still captivate people with a melody and a voice that had something to say. The album went on to reach number 2 in the US Top 100 and even became a number 1 in her native Canada.