Joni Mitchell – Blue

Looks like this pressing is getting a repress as clear vinyl. Look for the RSD Essential pressing of Blue. However, a Bernie Grundman version is coming out too too. So 2 really good options.

Good sounding pressing, but my copy has some noticeable left-channel dropouts, especially during the first minute of the title track. Definitely not an equipment issue, because the surface noise remains as present as ever. Unsure if this is a pressing defect or a tape issue or what.

I'm am no audiophile by anymeans. I run a Technics 1200 mk2 with an Ortofon Bronze cart, a Realistic sta 2300 reciever and a pair of Paradigm 11 v3 speakers.

Personally, I don't think this pressing sounds as terrible as the below comment. It isn't the greatest sounding record I own but it certainly isn't the worst (by a landslide). It's a very flat 180g heavy weight record. The dynamics sound great and the vocals and background accompanying tracks sound perfectly balanced and volumes are great. I don't have an original pressing (or any other pressing to compare it to) but there is no to little background noise throughout it's entirety which is hard to find with reissues imo. I'm happy to have this pressing in my collection. Hope this helps.

Love the little Tyvek sleeve this comes in! two more words

I don't like the sound of this pressing at all, I've just played it on a turntable with a new needle and it's really not very good. Very crunchy and overdriven in places.

I may have a one-of-a-kind variant. The label codes/matrix/runout on my copy leads me to believe it's this release. However, the same 5 songs are pressed on both sides of my LP. Yes, there's a side 1 label on mine, but both sides start with California and finish with The Last Time I Saw Richard.

That cover shot says it all: an intense inner narrative, tinged with the blue of melancholy and regret, on a path of self-analysis that from afar regain what is near, rediscovering what makes us ourselves. This record is one of the most outspoken confessions put together by an artist, in which an unguarded Joni lays bare that troubled time marked by the end of his love story with Graham Nash, the difficult new relationship with James Taylor and her escape vacation through Europe. The instrumentation is kept as usual to a minimum and that combines perfectly with the intimate matter treated in the selection. Appalachian dulcimer, guitar and piano are the solitary tools that weave tunes as introspective as solemn, the result of a musical genius that here pushes as far as possible the folk format before dedicating to more challenging forms and genres that could suit better the continuing development of Joni's boundless talent. "All I want" is a hopelessly romantic insight in her story with Taylor where the author struggles to sustain the love ambition even with all the turbulence she was experiencing. The track works masterfully, how the lyrics are fitted throughout the dulcimer strumming is really able to enhance and elevate the tune's signifiance. Another superb interweaving of words and musical fluency is the Nash dedicated "My old man". A more classic folk number, that brings us back to the past "Clouds" album, is the touching "Little green" that was conceived several years prior in the aftermath of her daughter's adoption process. After the cheerful intermission of "Carey", the pianistic intensity of the outstanding title track dives hard in then boyfriend James Taylor's issues and is the best Joni's performance in this record. "California" is the awareness of herself and the recovery at the end of this analysis record, while the cryptic "This flight tonight" is the elegy about lovers departure from which regret and hope equally spring. Then the albums stucks in a permanent slowness and essentially repeats its authorial formula for still good but weaker material than the aforementioned.

Do not buy this PRESS! Is made in Argentina with a very bad equipment and quality. This copy cant cost more than 5 dollars. Even Spotify sounds better.

Nice presentation. Depth to the instrumentation. And Joni’s voice is presented well and out front. Upper mids are a little harsh for me. But it’s a good pressing.

My copy is Canada pressing ,lyrics on the inner sleeve. My problem is that i can't find completely similar version on the list. It´s otherwise similar to ( https://www.discogs.com/release/1924864-Joni-Mitchell-Blue) but the numbers in the matrix do not match. In my copy code is, Side 1: 31218-2C-2HZ: MS2038 SI QU DM. Side 2: 31219-1B-2HZ: MS 2038 SI QU DM.