Produced by David Crosby, her sparse debut album reveals a striking, if somewhat fragile, folksinger in the accepted acoustic mode. However, Mitchell's heart-piercing cold-water vocals and restless, self-questioning persona separate her. 

 Judy Collins scored a Top 10 hit with Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" in 1968; Joni's more contemplative version sets the older-and-wiser tone of Clouds, her much-improved second album.  

 Ladies of the Canyon solidifies those songwriting advances. "Woodstock," too self-conscious to be an all-out anthem, is still Mitchell's most outgoing, least analytical moment. 

 Blue raises the autobiographical stakes and intensifies the melodies; arguably, it's Mitchell's masterpiece. She picks memorable vignettes out of the flood of memories and reflections that accompany an extended journey, spinning off songs. 

 Starting with For the Roses, Mitchell pushes her musical accompaniment to keep pace with her rapidly evolving singing and writing skills. She's not always successful, but few other singer/songwriters extended their quests as well . 

 Recorded on the tour following that album, Miles of Aisles features revamped version of Mitchell's better-known early songs. 

 On Court and Spark, Mitchell and Scott concoct a resonant pop-jazz sound that accommodates both swooning melodies ("Help Me") and blue reflection ("Same Situation") with ease. 

 Naturally, Mitchell pursued her muse into more adventurous territory on the next two albums. Some of the impressionistic snippets on The Hissing of Summer Lawns ("The Jungle Line," "The Boho Dance") never quite register. 

 Hejira is even more atmospheric–or formless, depending on your attention level. Bassist Jaco Pastorius keeps up with Mitchell's wandering free-form meditations, while the rest of the music–wintry, detached–lulls in the background. 

 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter seems inevitable now–the double album in search of an editor. This time, a real lack of focus allows the session musicians to hotdog their way through Mitchell's stilted set-pieces.  

 Mingus represents a brave attempted collaboration with the noted jazz bassist and composer; unfortunately, the results are sketchy at best.  

 It's a convenient sampler, but the progression from album to album–a big part of the picture–gets lost. 

 Mitchell didn't retire in the Eighties, though her intermittent releases indicate that she'd retreated from the artistic vanguard. Wild Things Run Fast is exactly the sort of competent holding-pattern album–complete with cover versions. 

 Avoid Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm; a torrent of borderline New Age–easy-listening blandness washes over even the most thoughtful lyrics.  

 Night Ride Home isn't a comeback so much as a chance to catch up with a long-lost confidante. There's a slight return to the jazz-tinged sound of the mid-Seventies; succinct orchestrations and smoky sax lines curl around Mitchell's tuneful songs. 

 The albums Mitchell recorded after returning to Reprise in 1994 revealed the extremes of a deeply reflective artist preoccupied with the passage of time and life's ups and downs: Turbulent Indigo sets dark themes. 

 Strangely, Mitchell has yet to receive the career-spanning box-set treatment–the single-disc collections Hits and Misses only begin to cover her expansive oeuvre–but it's only a matter of time before justice is served. 

 Strangely, Mitchell has yet to receive the career-spanning box-set treatment–the single-disc collections Hits and Misses only begin to cover her expansive oeuvre–but it's only a matter of time before justice is served. 

 The albums Mitchell recorded after returning to Reprise in 1994 revealed the extremes of a deeply reflective artist preoccupied with the passage of time and life's ups and downs. 

 Mitchell's mature voice brings added poignancy to the standards she personalizes on Both Sides Now and the original material she revisits with the support of a 70-piece orchestra on the two-CD Travelogue.  

 Mitchell's mature voice brings added poignancy to the standards she personalizes on Both Sides Now and the original material she revisits with the support of a 70-piece orchestra on the two-CD Travelogue.  

 Dog Eat Dog, which came out of left field in 1985, comes closer to being the individualistic challenge fans might expect. Joni confronts producer Thomas Dolby's synthesized sound with feisty vocals and her most pointed set of songs. 

 Shine is a set of solidly melodic new songs that were colored by Mitchell's cigarette-wracked voice, electronics-specked production, and a Mitchell's gripes about cell phones ("Shine") and global overcrowding ("If I had a Heart").