The 1971 masterpiece and the record for which she is still best known, this is one of the greatest albums to come out of the whole early-mid 70s singer/songwriter West Coast genre. It’s poetic, introspective, acoustic-based and consistently melodic, as was most of the wonderful music coming out of LA at the time, but Joni stood apart and was worshipped by all the other movers and shakers as well as the newly denim-clad young hipsters, on both sides of the Atlantic. This became THE record of the day and it’s resonated on through the years. It’s not hard to see why: it’s absolutely beautiful.