Geffen Records, 1985. Produced by Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein, Mike Shipley, Thomas Dolby.

While generally not considered to be her finest work, this is the album that really turned me on (I'm a radio - little joke there for Joni fans) to the music of Joni Mitchell. The songs sound great, and her voice appeals to me in a way that is hard to describe - gone is the falsetto that made her early Woodstock-era music an acquired taste, replaced by an older, wiser, knowing voice. The production is slick, but just when you think that maybe she's going soft, she'll slap you across the face with a lyric that hits like a ton of bricks. A touch of pop, a touch of poetry, a touch of the avant-garde, some social commentary, and a little bit of politics - all of the elements that we've come to expect from Joni Mitchell are in evidence here in an extremely accessible form. Joni Mitchell paved the way for women in rock, showing the world that there is a place for women outside of the "bimbo-rock" image. Elegant, intelligent, sophisticated, and wonderfully talented, she helped to lay the foundations for artists such as Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush, Tracy Chapman, and Natalie Merchant - she helped to force the doors of the industry open, allowing women to be taken seriously and on their own terms in an essentially male dominated art form. And she made (and continues to make) great records along the way. In 1996 her album "Blue Indigo" earned the Grammy Award for best pop album - her first - a remarkable feat and a rare instance where justice is truly served at a music awards show.

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