Get out of the clouds and onto the main Joni Mitchell page... Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus, Romulus and Remus Overall Album Score: 9.2 out of 10 A starkly different effort than A Song to a Seagull, even though it might not be immediately apparent! Whereas A Song to a Seagull had almost meandering yet unearthly beautiful folk(ish) songs, this effort has much more succinct and, I guess, more usual folk(ish) songs. Of course, this was also Joni Mitchell's commercial breakthrough! As you can probably tell by looking at Clouds' 9.2 album score, I don't like this quite as much as I adored Song to a Seagull. ... That whole thing in that review where I said that 'these songs sound like they're poetry set to music' doesn't so much apply here ... (even though the poetry still sounds great). So, I'm not quite as breath-taken by this effort. Nevertheless, this is still quite a great album with more great songs than you can shake a stick at! (...That's a strange cliché, isn't it? I don't think I ever wanted to shake a stick at anything! ... Yet, I'm still going to say it. I don't want to shake a stick at these songs.) Overall Album Score: 9.2 out of 10 (A great album by all means ... not all the songs within are perfect, but too many of the others seem like they are.) Average Song Score: 9.0 (More great songs from Joni Mitchell! They're wonderful and colorful ... all they need is a guitar and Mitchell's captivating voice ...) Album Tilt: 9.0 (Wonderful songs throughout ... there are a few relative downers such as "The Fiddle and the Drum," but ... they're still pretty good.) Artist Rating: 9.5 (I'm almost more amazed how she was able to do this more than I actually enjoy the songs ... which doesn't make sense, but it was a nice accomplishment. I don't even enjoy Dylan's acoustic albums this much! ... Besides which, she's *the* baroness of lyrics.) Track Reviews Tin Angel 9/10 Yeah! Joni Mitchell is boring MY DOODIE!!! ........... Okay, maybe she is a little boring ... ummmmm ... But not boring! ... Indeed, this is a very calm, serene, folky song ... much more succinct and more evenly structured than the songs that appeared on Songs to a Seagull, so all you "She-Is-Boring Freaks" can just bite the big one. Chelsea Morning 10/10 Hey! This song isn't boring! It's a very upbeat (and still totally acoustic) song with a catchy melody and a very short running time (less than three minutes). This is the first song in the Mitchell catalogue that ordinary people liked ... yeah ... I Don't Know Where I Stand 9.5/10 Another one of Joni Mitchell's "boring" songs ... slow, serene, and absolutely gorgeous! Her voice, again, is wonderful, seeming to capture everything beautiful on the planet. ... Yet, there's absolutely no studio production on this song! There's no added production on any of these songs! It's just Mitchell and her guitar! ... You can seriously do that without song production???? That Song About Midway 8.5/10 ... Kind of like that last song, except it's a different melody! (It's a very different melody ... hardly a carbon copy!) It's perhaps not quite as captivating as other songs on the album, but ... still captivating. Roses Blue 8.5/10 The melody is rather simple here ... but the song is captivating nevertheless. (And there's another instrument here besides an acoustic guitar ... I have no freaking idea what it is ... a mandolin, maybe ... I know not of such things!!!) Nevertheless, it's just Mitchell and her guitar singing to you ... and thou shalt listen. The Gallery 9.5/10 Wow! Another absolutely encapsulating song! ... I really don't know how people can not like Joni Mitchell. She may be boring on the surface, but really, I rarely ever run across such songs that are so colorful when only a guitar and voice are used. ... And her voice is much better than Dylan's, too ... she has that going for her. ... You've got to like this stuff... It ought to be a requirement of humanity! I Think I Understand 8/10 Okay ... this is a little bit boring. A little bit!!!!! I don't find this quite as captivating as I might ... but it remains a perfectly groovy folky song with a nice vocal performance and ... this is just nice!! Songs to Aging Children Come 8.5/10 Awww! 'Tis a lovely song!! The melody, while simple, is nice, and the vocal harmonies that Mitchell adds to this were quite nice. Another fine little song... The Fiddle and the Drum 8/10 A CAPELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on! You've got to have your guitar!!! ... Just strum it a little!!! ... Oh, I just suppose Mitchell was just being a hippie. All hippies have to do something like this, which was probably a protest song of some sort. Hippies will be hippies. Nearly 40 years later, A Perfect Circle covered this song, of all freaks. Both Sides Now 10/10 This was another hit from the album! ... I don't see entirely why this is better than some of the other songs from here ... It only utilizes Mitchell's voice and guitar ... It was lovely then, and it is lovely now! Perhaps it's because it's slightly more upbeat than the others, but it's equally as captivating. I guess the genius with this particular song comes with the colorful lyrics ... And how gorgeous they are ... People who especially take lyrics to heart probably owns Mitchell's entire catalogue ... There aren't many people in rock like her. (And, you know, every singer-songwriter to come after her owes their existence to this whole album, prob'ly.) The clouuuuuuuuudsssssss are up in the sky over here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. How can I knock a nail in with your hamster?