Joni Mitchell has announced a new box set collating four of her iconic albums from the late 1960s and early ’70s.
‘The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)’ is being released in June 25 to celebrate 50 years of ‘Blue’, and is being teased by a 2021 remastered version of one of that album’s most beloved tracks, ‘A Case Of You’.
The new box set will collate Mitchell’s four studio albums for Reprise Records – 1968’s ‘Song to a Seagull’, 1969’s ‘Clouds’, 1970’s ‘Ladies of the Canyon’, and 1971’s ‘Blue’ – and all have received full remasters.
Speaking in a statement of her work to remaster ‘Song to a Seagull’, Mitchell said: “The original mix was atrocious. It sounded like it was recorded under a jello bowl, so I fixed it!”
Also in the new release is an essay from Brandi Carlile on ‘Blue’, which she calls “the greatest album ever made” in a snippet of the essay.
“‘Blue’ didn’t make me a better songwriter. ‘Blue’ made me a better woman,” she wrote. “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.”
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The box set is limited to 10,000 copies, and comes in vinyl, CD and digital versions, along with Mitchell’s first ever merchandise run. Pre-orders are available here, and you can check out the box set’s artwork and tracklist below.
‘The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)’:
‘Song To A Seagull’ (1968)
01. ‘I Had A King’
02. ‘Michael From Mountains’
03. ‘Night In The City’
04. ‘Marcie’
05. ‘Nathan La Franeer’
06. ‘Sisotowbell Lane’
07. ‘The Dawntreader’
08. ‘The Pirate Of Penance’
09. ‘Song To A Seagull’
10. ‘Cactus Tree’
‘Clouds’ (1969)
01. ‘Tin Angel’
02. ‘Chelsea Morning’
03. ‘I Don’t Know Where I Stand’
04. ‘That Song About The Midway’
05. ‘Roses Blue’
06. ‘The Gallery’
07. ‘I Think I Understand’
08. ‘Songs To Aging Children Come’
09. ‘The Fiddle And The Drum’
10. ‘Both Sides, Now’
‘Ladies Of The Canyon’ (1970)
01. ‘Morning Morgantown’
02. ‘For Free’
03. ‘Conversation’
04. ‘Ladies Of The Canyon’
05. ‘Willy’
06. ‘The Arrangement’
07. ‘Rainy Night House’
08. ‘The Priest’
09. ‘Blue Boy’
10. ‘Big Yellow Taxi’
11. ‘Woodstock’
12. ‘The Circle Game’
‘Blue’ (1971)
01. ‘All I Want’
02. ‘My Old Man’
03. ‘Little Green’
04. ‘Carey’
05. ‘Blue’
06. ‘California’
07. ‘This Flight Tonight’
08. ‘River’
09. ‘A Case Of You’
10. ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’
Last year, Mitchell released the first volume of her current archives series. ‘The Early Years (1963 – 1967)’ is composed of recordings prior to the release of her 1968 debut album, ‘Song to a Seagull’.
It has been noted that ‘The Reprise Albums’ does not serve as Volume 2 of the archive series, and that the second volume will arrive separately later this year.