Joni Mitchell Unveils ‘The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)’ Series

Coming on June 25th from Joni Mitchell is The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) series. The collection will be available on four-CD's, four-LP 180-gram vinyl (limited to edition of 10,000 copies), as well as digitally. Included are Mitchell's first four albums — Song To A Seagull (1968), Clouds (1969), Ladies Of The Canyon (1970), and Blue (1971).

In the case of Song To A Seagull, the original mix has been recently updated by Mitchell and mixer Matt Lee, with Mitchell explaining: “The original mix was atrocious. It sounded like it was recorded under a jello bowl, so I fixed it!”

The new collection features a new essay by singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, who writes in part: “In my opinion Blue is the greatest album ever made. Blue didn’t make me a better songwriter. Blue made me a better woman. . . No matter what we are dealing with in these times we can rejoice and know that of all the ages we could have lived through, we lived in the time of Joni Mitchell.”

A while back, Joni Mitchell spoke about her unique and groundbreaking use of guitar tunings to write her songs: “Y'know, when David Crosby would pick up a guitar that I just touched, and he'd go 'blingggg' — y'know, and he'd go — 'Oh! The Martians have been (laughs) here!' And not having studied music, I reinvented the wheel. So, like, being self-taught, I went, 'Oh, too many of them and it gets uninteresting again.' But then suddenly if you break to a major or minor (chord) it's like a good short story. The character goes through a change. I mean, it truly is a change that's more like what I feel inside.”